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ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE’S NOTION
OF POLITICAL FREEDOM
A VISION OF DEMOCRACY
Demin Duan
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN, BELGIUM
THERE HAS BEEN A BOOM OF INTEREST IN TOCQUEVILLE IN RECENT DECADES,
which largely focuses on his idea of freedom and democracy. Many
scholars have pointed out that Tocqueville has a rather different notion
of freedom than traditional liberalism. In a way, Tocqueville seems
to be an early criticism of the classical liberal theory. Perhaps largely
because of this, Tocqueville’s works – though they were written more
than two hundred years ago – appear familiar to many contemporary
critics. Marcel Gauchet, for instance, remarks that, “Tocqueville’s
great work on America […] continues to be an incomparably wise
and living source, always surprisingly relevant upon examination.”
(Gauchet 1994, 91)
In this light, it seems useful to engage Tocqueville’s thought on freedom
and democracy and pit it against the traditional liberal discourse,
as a way of intervening in our contemporary debate on what kind of
democracy we need. Indeed, if there is a model of democracy based on
the teachings of classical liberalism (Cunningham 2002), Tocqueville
proves to be a detachment from that model. It is important in this regard
to single out some crucial points on which Tocqueville deviates from
that model and illustrate his influence upon our contemporary reflections
on democracy. This should be the primary aim of this text.
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ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE’S
NOTION OF POLITICAL
FREEDOM
Demin Duan