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'''Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de  Tocqueville''' ([[July 29]], [[1805]]–[[April 16]], [[1859]]) was a [[France|French]] [[politics|political thinker]] and [[historian]].  His most famous works are ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (appearing in two volumes: [[1835]] and [[1840]]) and ''[[The Old Regime and the Revolution]]'' ([[1856]]).  He was a champion of the nineteenth century ideals of [[liberty]] and [[democracy]]. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
 
'''Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de  Tocqueville''' ([[July 29]], [[1805]]–[[April 16]], [[1859]]) was a [[France|French]] [[politics|political thinker]] and [[historian]].  His most famous works are ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (appearing in two volumes: [[1835]] and [[1840]]) and ''[[The Old Regime and the Revolution]]'' ([[1856]]).  He was a champion of the nineteenth century ideals of [[liberty]] and [[democracy]]. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
  
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He was born in [[Verneuil-sur-Seine]], in the Paris region  ([[Île-de-France (province)|Île-de-France]]) and died in [[Cannes]], although his family had its origins in the landed [[nobility]] of [[Normandy]], and leant its name to several locations. His most famous work,  ''Democracy in America'', based on the observations he made during his travels throughout the [[United States]]United States, is frequently used as a primary source text for high school and college courses in [[19th century]] American history and government. An eminent representative of the post-revolutionary political tradition known as [[liberalism]] , his advocacy of private [[charity]] rather than [[welfare|government aid]] to assist the poor has often been cited admiringly during the late 20th and early 21st century by political [[conservative]]s and [[classical liberal]]s.
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He was born in [[Verneuil-sur-Seine]], in the Paris region  ([[Île-de-France (province)|Île-de-France]]) and died in [[Cannes]], although his family had its origins in the landed [[nobility]] of [[Normandy]], and leant its name to several locations. His most famous work,  ''Democracy in America'', based on the observations he made during his travels throughout the [[United States]], is frequently used as a primary source text for high school and college courses in [[19th century]] American history and government. An eminent representative of the post-revolutionary political tradition known as [[liberalism]] , his advocacy of private [[charity]] rather than [[welfare|government aid]] to assist the poor has often been cited admiringly during the late 20th and early 21st century by political [[conservative]]s and [[classical liberal]]s.
  
 
Tocqueville also made an observational tour of England, which led to his ''Memoir on Pauperism''. In addition, he traveled twice to [[French rule in Algeria|Algeria]] ( in  [[1841]]  and [[1846]] ). His first visit inspired his ''Travail sur l'Algérie'', in which he criticized the French model of colonization, which was based on an [[assimilationist]] view.  Toqueville preferred the British colonial model of [[indirect rule]], which avoided the mixing of native and colonial populations. He went as far as to openly advocate [[racial segregation]] between the [[colonialism|European settlers]] and the "[[Arabs]]" through the creation of two different legislative systems (half a century before its effective implementation in the 1881 ''Indigenous Code'').
 
Tocqueville also made an observational tour of England, which led to his ''Memoir on Pauperism''. In addition, he traveled twice to [[French rule in Algeria|Algeria]] ( in  [[1841]]  and [[1846]] ). His first visit inspired his ''Travail sur l'Algérie'', in which he criticized the French model of colonization, which was based on an [[assimilationist]] view.  Toqueville preferred the British colonial model of [[indirect rule]], which avoided the mixing of native and colonial populations. He went as far as to openly advocate [[racial segregation]] between the [[colonialism|European settlers]] and the "[[Arabs]]" through the creation of two different legislative systems (half a century before its effective implementation in the 1881 ''Indigenous Code'').
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== ''Democracy in America'' ==
 
== ''Democracy in America'' ==
  
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In ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville praised the [[New World]] and the [[democracy]] it would bring, while at the same time warning against the dangers of [[individualism]], which could only be averted by the formation of associations. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced [[liberty]] and [[equality]], concern for the individual as well as the community. Tocqueville thought that radical social egalitarianism would eventually lead to social isolation, greater intervention by the government and thus less individual liberty. A critic of [[individualism]], Alexis de Tocqueville thought that [[Voluntary association|association]], the coming together of people for common purposes, would bind Americans to an idea of common nationhood which would be greater than the sum of its individuals acting in self-interest, thus creating a [[civil society]] which wasn't exclusively dependent on the state.  
+
In ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville praised the [[New World]] and the [[democracy]] it would bring, while at the same time warning against the dangers of [[individualism]], which could only be averted through the formation of civic associations. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced [[liberty]] and [[equality]], concern for the individual as well as the community. Tocqueville thought that radical social egalitarianism would eventually lead to social isolation, greater intervention by the government and thus less individual liberty. A critic of [[individualism]], Alexis de Tocqueville thought that [[Voluntary association|association]], the coming together of people for common purposes, would bind Americans to an idea of common nationhood which would be greater than the sum of its individuals acting in self-interest, thus creating a [[civil society]] which wasn't exclusively dependent on the state.  
  
 
As a supporter of [[colonialism]], he also endorsed the common [[racialism|racialist]] views of his epoch, stating for example that among the "widely differing families of men, the first which attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power and in enjoyment, is the white or European, the man pre-eminent; and in subordinate grades, the negro and the Indian ...Both of them occupy an inferior rank in the country they inhabit...." <ref> Beginning of chapter 18 of ''[[Democracy in America]]'', "The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States" </ref>. He thus limited the practice of democracy to the Europeans settlers, stating that the Native Americans would become extinct because they were too proud to assimilate, and further explaining why persons of African descent had physical marks of their slavery, while Europeans who had been enslaved did not possess the physical marks of slavery.  
 
As a supporter of [[colonialism]], he also endorsed the common [[racialism|racialist]] views of his epoch, stating for example that among the "widely differing families of men, the first which attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power and in enjoyment, is the white or European, the man pre-eminent; and in subordinate grades, the negro and the Indian ...Both of them occupy an inferior rank in the country they inhabit...." <ref> Beginning of chapter 18 of ''[[Democracy in America]]'', "The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States" </ref>. He thus limited the practice of democracy to the Europeans settlers, stating that the Native Americans would become extinct because they were too proud to assimilate, and further explaining why persons of African descent had physical marks of their slavery, while Europeans who had been enslaved did not possess the physical marks of slavery.  

Revision as of 12:41, 10 November 2006


Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805–April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian. His most famous works are Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). He was a champion of the nineteenth century ideals of liberty and democracy. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

He was born in Verneuil-sur-Seine, in the Paris region (Île-de-France) and died in Cannes, although his family had its origins in the landed nobility of Normandy, and leant its name to several locations. His most famous work, Democracy in America, based on the observations he made during his travels throughout the United States, is frequently used as a primary source text for high school and college courses in 19th century American history and government. An eminent representative of the post-revolutionary political tradition known as liberalism , his advocacy of private charity rather than government aid to assist the poor has often been cited admiringly during the late 20th and early 21st century by political conservatives and classical liberals.

Tocqueville also made an observational tour of England, which led to his Memoir on Pauperism. In addition, he traveled twice to Algeria ( in 1841 and 1846 ). His first visit inspired his Travail sur l'Algérie, in which he criticized the French model of colonization, which was based on an assimilationist view. Toqueville preferred the British colonial model of indirect rule, which avoided the mixing of native and colonial populations. He went as far as to openly advocate racial segregation between the European settlers and the "Arabs" through the creation of two different legislative systems (half a century before its effective implementation in the 1881 Indigenous Code).

Democracy in America

In Democracy in America (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville praised the New World and the democracy it would bring, while at the same time warning against the dangers of individualism, which could only be averted through the formation of civic associations. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community. Tocqueville thought that radical social egalitarianism would eventually lead to social isolation, greater intervention by the government and thus less individual liberty. A critic of individualism, Alexis de Tocqueville thought that association, the coming together of people for common purposes, would bind Americans to an idea of common nationhood which would be greater than the sum of its individuals acting in self-interest, thus creating a civil society which wasn't exclusively dependent on the state.

As a supporter of colonialism, he also endorsed the common racialist views of his epoch, stating for example that among the "widely differing families of men, the first which attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power and in enjoyment, is the white or European, the man pre-eminent; and in subordinate grades, the negro and the Indian ...Both of them occupy an inferior rank in the country they inhabit...." [1]. He thus limited the practice of democracy to the Europeans settlers, stating that the Native Americans would become extinct because they were too proud to assimilate, and further explaining why persons of African descent had physical marks of their slavery, while Europeans who had been enslaved did not possess the physical marks of slavery.

According to Toqueville, Americans of African descent were inferior to Europeans when it came to their facial and physical features, intelligence, marriages, and families, particularly in their marital and parental relationships. Removal of this population from America was thereby the best solution to the problems of race relations for both Americans of African and European descent. French historian of colonialism Olivier LeCour Grandmaison has underlined how Tocqueville openly talked of "extermination" regarding the colonization of the Western United States and the Indian Removal period [2]. However, if Tocqueville shared these common views of his epoch, he also opposed the scientific racism theories of Gobineau , which had been developed in Gobineau's essay on The Inequality of Human Races (1853-55) [3].

The French conquest of Algeria

While most French intellectuals prefer to make of Tocqueville the representative of the liberal tradition, historian Olivier LeCour Grandmaison demonstrated that in less noble works, Tocqueville made the apology of the brutal techniques employed during the 1830s conquest of Algeria:

"In France I have often heard people I respect, but do not approve, deplore [the army] burning harvests, emptying granaries and seizing unarmed men, women and children. As I see it, these are unfortunate necessities that any people wishing to make war on the Arabs must accept... I believe the laws of war entitle us to ravage the country and that we must do this, either by destroying crops at harvest time, or all the time by making rapid incursions, known as raids, the aim of which is to carry off men and flocks" [4]

"Whatever the case", continued Tocqueville, "we may say in a general manner that all political freedoms must be suspended in Algeria" [5] According to LeCour Grandmaison, "de Tocqueville thought the conquest of Algeria was important for two reasons: first, his understanding of the international situation and France’s position in the world, and, second, changes in French society." [6] Tocqueville, who despised the July monarchy (1830-1848), believed that war and colonization would "restore national pride, threatened, he believed, by "the gradual softening of social mores" in the middle classes. Their taste for "material pleasures" was spreading to the whole of society, giving it "an example of weakness and egotism"." Applauding the methods of General Bugeaud, Tocqueville went as far as saying that "war in Africa" had became a "science": "war in Africa is a science. Everyone is familiar with its rules and everyone can apply those rules with almost complete certainty of success. One of the greatest services that Field Marshal Bugeaud has rendered his country is to have spread, perfected and made everyone aware of this new science" [7]. Years before the Crémieux decrees and the 1881 Indigenous Code that would separate European Jews colons, given French citizenship, and Muslims, Tocqueville advocated racial segregation in Algeria: "There should therefore be two quite distinct legislations in Africa, for there are two very separate communities. There is absolutely nothing to prevent us treating Europeans as if they were on their own, as the rules established for them will only ever apply to them" [8]

However, LeCour Grandmaison's work has been contested by Jean-Louis Benoît, who claimed that these quotes (also used by Tzvetan Todorov) had been instrumentalized to discredit Tocqueville. However, Jean-Louis Benoît did admit that Tocqueville was a strong support of colonialism and of segregation between Europeans and Arabs. In a reference to an August 22, 1837 proposal, Benoît shows that Tocqueville distinguished the Berbers from the Arabs, and considered that these last ones should have a self-government (a bit on the model of British indirect rule, thus going against the French assimiliationist stance). Benoît thus admits that Tocqueville proned racial segregation. Benoît also quotes Tocqueville's 1847 Rapport sur l'Algérie: "Let's not repeat, in the middle of the 19th century, the history of the conquest of America. Let's not imitate those bloody examples that the human kind's opinion has seared". [9]

Quotations

  • ...experience suggests that the most dangerous moment for an evil government is usually when it begins to reform itself. Only great ingenuity can save a prince who undertakes to give relief to his subjects after long oppression. The sufferings that are endured patiently, as being inevitable, become intolerable the moment it appears that there might be an escape. Reform then only serves to reveal more clearly what still remains oppressive and now all the more unbearable.
  • We are sleeping on a volcano... A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon. (Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies, 1848, just prior to the outbreak of revolution in Europe)
  • Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
  • There are at the present time two great nations in the world—I allude to the Russians and the Americans—All other nations seem to have nearly reached their national limits, and have only to maintain their power; these alone are proceeding—along a path to which no limit can be perceived.
  • The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
  • They (the emperors) frequently abused their power arbitrarily to deprive their subjects of property or of life: their tyranny was extremely onerous to the few, but it did not reach the greater number; .. But it would seem that if despotism were to be established amongst the democratic nations of our days it might assume a different character; it would be more extensive and more mild, it would degrade men without tormenting them
  • The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
  • Americans are so enamoured of equality they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
  • The French constitute the most brilliant and the most dangerous nation in Europe and the best qualified in turn to become an object of admiration, hatred, pity or terror but never indifference.
  • A weak government is threatened most when it begins to reform.
  • The principal cause of disparities in the fortunes of men is intelligence.
  • Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science.
  • I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.
  • Mahommed professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and theories of science. The gospel, on the contrary, only speaks of the general relations of men to God and to each other - beyond which it inculcates and imposes no point of faith. This alone, besides a thousand other reasons, would suffice to prove that the former of these religions will never long predominate in a cultivated and democratic age, whilst the latter is destined to retain its sway at these as at all other periods.
  • Tocqueville did not say, "When America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." This is according to an article on www.tocqueville.org about this falsely attributed quote.[7]

References
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  1. ↑ Beginning of chapter 18 of Democracy in America, "The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States"
  2. ↑ Olivier LeCour Grandmaison "Le négationnisme colonial" Le Monde February 2, 2005 [1]
  3. ↑ See Correspondance avec Arthur de Gobineau, quoted by Jean-Louis Benoît
  4. ↑ Olivier LeCour Grandmaison "Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony" Le Monde diplomatique June 2001 [2] (quoting Alexis de Tocqueville, Travail sur l’Algérie in Œuvres complètes, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1991, pp 704 and 705).
  5. ↑ Olivier LeCour Grandmaison "Tocqueville et la conquête de l'Algérie" 2001 La Mazarine [3]
  6. ↑ Olivier LeCour Grandmaison "Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony" Le Monde diplomatique June 2001 [4]
  7. ↑ Alexis de Tocqueville, "Rapports sur l’Algérie", in Œuvres complètes, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1991,p 806 (quoted in livier LeCour Grandmaison "Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony" Le Monde diplomatique June 2001 [5]
  8. ↑ Travail sur l'Algérie, op.cit. p 752 (quoted in Olivier LeCour Grandmaison "Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony" Le Monde diplomatique June 2001 [6])
  9. ↑ Arguments in favor of Tocqueville

Works

  • Du système pénitentaire aux États-Unis et de son application en France (1833)—On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application to France.
  • De la démocratie en Amerique (1835/1840)—Democracy in America. It was published in two volumes, the first in 1835, the second in 1840. For an excellent translation see, Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. and eds., Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, University of Chicago Press, 2000.
  • L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856)—The Old Regime and the Revolution. It is Tocqueville's second most-famous work.
  • Recollections (1893)—This work was a private journal of the Revolution of 1848. He never intended to publish this during his lifetime; it was published by his wife and his friend Gustave de Beaumont after his death.
  • Journey to America (1831 – 1832)—Alexis de Tocqueville's travel diary of his visit to America; translated into English by George Lawrence, edited by J. P. Mayer, Yale University Press, 1960; based on vol. V, 1 of the Œuvres Complètes of Tocqueville.


External links

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