Alexis de Tocqueville

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Alexis de Tocqueville

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Alexis de Tocqueville , 1805-59, French politician and writer. He was prominent in politics, particularly just before and just after the Revolution of 1848 (see revolutions of 1848 ), and was minister of foreign affairs briefly in 1849. His observations made in 1831 during a government mission to the United States to study the penal system resulted in De la démocratie en Amérique (2 vol., 1835; tr. Democracy in America, 4 vol., 1835-40), one of the classics of political literature. A liberal whose deepest commitment was to human freedom, Tocqueville believed that political democracy and social equality would, inevitably, replace the aristocratic institutions of Europe. He analyzed the American attempt to have both liberty and equality in terms of what lessons Europe could learn from American successes and failures. Tocqueville's other important works are L'Ancien Régime et la révolution (1856; tr. 1856), which stressed the continuance after the French Revolution of many trends that had begun before, and his Recollections (1893; tr. by A. Teixeira de Mattos, 1896; complete ed. by J. P. Mayer, 1949). There are numerous English editions of his works, correspondence, and travel notebooks.

Bibliography: See biographies by J. P. Mayer (tr. 1960, repr. 1966), J. Epstein (2006), and H. Brogan (2007); studies by E. T. Gargan (1965), M. Zetterbaum (1967), S. I. Drescher (1968), R. Boesche (1987), L. E. Shiner (1988), S. A. Hadari (1989), and S. Wolin (2001).

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Tocqueville, Alexis de

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | © World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Tocqueville, Alexis de (1805–59) French historian. Sent on a fact-finding tour to the USA by the French government, he produced Of Democracy in America (1835), the first in-depth study of the US political system. His later work includes L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856).

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Tocqueville, Alexis de

A Dictionary of Sociology | 1998 | | © A Dictionary of Sociology 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press 1998. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Tocqueville, Alexis de (1805–59) An early French sociologist who travelled to the United States between 1831 and 1832 to observe democracy at work. His classic work Democracy in America (1835–40) identifies within democracies a tension between equality and liberty which cannot easily be reconciled. Since democracy tends to undermine hierarchy, it discourages the formation of intermediate groupings between the individual and society, and therefore promotes tendencies towards individualism and centralization which, if unchecked, will result in an authoritarian state. This proposition was illustrated in a systematic comparison of France and the United States. The post-revolutionary history of the former country revealed the dangers of attempting to impose equality without first establishing the liberty of self-government: administrative centralism fostered revolutionary despotism. In the case of the United States, the well-entrenched constitutional principle of federalism provided for a multiplicity of intermediate voluntary associations, and a decentralized mode of government to which people had ready access, and in which they could participate. In both cases, however, Tocqueville warned against the ‘tyranny of the majority’, by which ‘every citizen, being assimilated to ail the rest, is lost in the crowd’. His work is thus the starting-point for many debates about the nature of mass society (including, for example, D. Reisman's The Lonely Crowd, 1950, and R. Bellah's Habits of the Heart, 1985).

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Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours.(Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours, American Intellectual Culture)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Journal of Southern History; 11/1/2007; ; 700+ words ; Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours. By Matthew...9: cloth, $75.00, ISBN 978-0-7425-2343-2.) In Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours, Matthew Mancini...
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Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours
Magazine article from: The Journal of Southern History; 11/1/2007; ; 700+ words ; Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours. By Matthew...9; cloth, $75.00, ISBN 978-0-7425-2343-2.) In Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours, Matthew Mancini...
'Alexis de Tocqueville': the first French critic of the US.(FEATURES)(BOOKS)(Book review)
Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor; 4/10/2007; 700+ words ; ...the name of French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville must reign supreme. After...English-language biography of Tocqueville. That gap is now filled by...s absorbing, exhaustive Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life. Brogan, a British...
Stealing Tocqueville?(translation of Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America")
Magazine article from: The American Prospect; 9/24/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...Lawrence's 1966 translation of Alexis de Tocqueville's classic Democracy in America...the foregoing excerpt from Tocqueville's correspondence with Reeve...first accurate translation of Alexis de Tocqueville's nineteenth-century masterpiece...
Tocqueville's journey on C-SPAN.(Symposium: Tocqueville and Democracy in America)(French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville)
Magazine article from: PS: Political Science & Politics; 6/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont traveled...s Rationale The impetus for the Tocqueville series came from several quarters...contemporary political figures use Alexis de Tocqueville as a source to support and give...
Teaching through Tocqueville.(Symposium: Tocqueville and Democracy in America)(French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville)
Magazine article from: PS: Political Science & Politics; 6/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; ...for enlightening students. Alexis de Tocqueville seems to be an exception...little more than mention a few Tocqueville sound bites in class to reinforce...we were 160 years ago when Alexis de Tocqueville graced our shores"; "Tocqueville...
After Tocqueville: what are the prospects for global democracy when the American model is in such disrepair?(Ideas)(Alexis de Tocqueville)(Critical essay)
Magazine article from: The American Conservative; 9/24/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...historians have debated whether Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of Democracy...into the past. Presumably, Tocqueville expected the coming democratic...how long should we take Alexis de Tocqueville's future to be? There are...
Democracy and human nature: Lawler and Tocqueville on the modern individual.(Peter Lawler, Alexis de Tocqueville)(Essay)
Magazine article from: Perspectives on Political Science; 6/22/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...modern American and points to Alexis de Tocqueville as one of his sources. However...human nature, Peter Lawler, Alexis de Tocqueville ********** Casting...analyst of American life: Alexis de Tocqueville. In his chapter marking Tocqueville...
The man who could see it coming.(Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Quadrant; 4/1/2007; ; 700+ words ; Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution, by Hugh Brogan; Profile, 2006, 30 [pounds sterling]. THIS NEW BIOGRAPHY of Alexis de Tocqueville is not a great book. The question is: Why not? It is clearly...
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