Politics 313: Tocqueville and Democratic Theory

What do we mean when we say “democracy”: is it an electoral system, a cultural order, or a political theory of sovereignty? Is democracy an inescapable unfolding historical fact or a claimed normative good to guide political action? What relationship is there between democracy and wealth or property? Is democracy the realization of freedom or the greatest danger to freedom? How do the boundaries (both imagined and real) of something called “Europe” contour thinking about democracy and its progress? What are the implications for political life when democracy appears as a revolution without end? In an age of democracy, what aristocratic virtues have we lost? Are they recoverable? These are some of the questions we will explore in this seminar via a close and sustained engagement with the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville. Alexis de Tocqueville has served as a theoretical resource and inspiration for liberal individualism, small-government conservatism, communitarianism, Euro-imperialism, and radical democratic anti-capitalism. We will explore all of these threads in his writings. Although we may engage with secondary sources and the writings of Tocqueville’s contemporaries, the primary focus of this seminar will be Tocqueville’s works. We will read both volumes of Democracy in America, The Old Regime and the Revolution, and other selected writings.