Tocquevillian Ideas: Contemporary European Perspectives

by Zbigniew Rau (Editor), Marek Tracz-Tryniecki (Editor)

Overview

This book offers a new, European-centered approach to Tocqueville’s thought. Although Tocqueville is often revered as a classic writer on the subject of American democracy, this book focuses on the multifaceted importance of his ideas within a European context. This collection of essays presents Tocqueville’s vision of a diverse and united Old Continent, exploring his ideas of liberty, virtue, religion, patriotism, greatness, civic participation and democracy. These thoughts are analyzed not only in the context of Tocqueville’s output, but also in the light of their potential to describe the dilemmas of contemporary Europe and to offer remedies for its problems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761863144
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/01/2014
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Zbigniew Rau is Director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Center for Political and Legal Thought. He is the author of many books, including Contractarianism versus Holism: Reinterpreting Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (University Press of America, 1995). He has held numerous academic appointments including those at Trinity College, Cambridge, Bowling Green State University, Stanford University and the Australian National University. He has also served as Senator of the Republic of Poland and as a Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Marek Tracz-Tryniecki is a researcher at the Alexis de Tocqueville Centre for Political and Legal Though at the University of Łódź. He is the author of the first Polish monograph on Tocqueville’s political and legal thought and numerous articles concerning the different aspects of his thought, including natural law, economic crisis, constitutional law and colonial policy.

Table of Contents

1. Tocqueville and Europe: What Can We Learn from Him about the Past, the Present and the Future of the Old Continent?
By Zbigniew Rau and Marek Tracz-Tryniecki
A prophet
The American Experience—Unity
European Experience—Diversity
The European Idea—Unity
Tocqueville and the Crisis of the European Integration Project
Concluding Remarks: Towards a Toquevillean Notion of European Unity
2. Tocqueville: A Thinker of Freedom
By Cengiz Çağla
Tocquevillian Liberty
State, Society and Democracy
Threats to Liberty in Democracies: Lefort and Richter readers of Tocqueville
Conclusion
3. Patriotism in Democracy: What We Learn from Tocqueville
By Ewa Atanassow
Political Sociology of Patriotism
Political Psychology of Patriotism
Psychology of Patriotism Reconsidered
Patriotism in Democracy
In Conclusion: What do we learn from Tocqueville?
4. Tocqueville on Citizen Participation
By Marinus R.R. 'ssewaarde
Introduction
Citizen participation according to Tocqueville
Citizen participation and the era of global capitalism
Citizen participation, nature and the state
Citizen participation and the divine significance of democracy
Citizen participation and the heroism of reason
Some further reflections on freedom
5. Tocqueville and the Democratic Churning
By Attila K. Molnár
The upgraduation of democracy
What is democracy, and what is not.
Individualism—the ens completum
The multitude
Collectivist individualism
Beautiful democracy?
6. Religion, Virtue and the Ennobling of Democracy: Tocqueville's Vision of Civic Society
By Oliver Hidalgo
The Problem of Modern Civil Society: Freedom vs. Equality
Religion and Virtue as Conditions of a Free Civil Society
Catholicism against Pantheism
Conclusion: Ennobling Democracy
7. Human Dignity versus Greatness: Tocqueville’s Dilemma
By Marek Tracz-Tryniecki
Human dignity
Greatness
Algeria
Conclusion
8. The American Melting Pot as Reductionist Kettle: Religious Liberty's Worrisome Condition
By William R. Stevenson, Jr
Bibliography
List of Authors
Information on the Alexis de Tocqueville Centre for Political and Legal Thought

Editorial Reviews

Alexis de Tocqueville is the perennial social philosopher for our time. This collection of essays shows his abiding importance for the present, but also for the future of those Western societies that pride themselves on their attachment to liberty but are plainly succumbing to every single temptation that Tocqueville identified as a likely problem for democracy. The editors of this fine book have performed a great service for the cause of freedom.

Samuel Gregg

Tocquevillian Ideas: Contemporary European Perspectives would be beneficial for postgraduate students and those who are interested in the effects of Tocqueville’s ideas on democracy and freedom in the last century; the book provides an almost comprehensive outline of the main themes in Tocqueville’s thought.

Political Studies Review

The eight authors who reflect on Tocqueville in this book provide an authentic and effective reminder of the relevance of Tocqueville’s observation that tyranny may appear in places we least expect to see it: in democratic societies. In the best tradition of humanistic enquiry, these authors speak about the fundamentals and teach these fundamentals to the reader.

Ewa Thompson