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FROM THE SOCIAL CONTRACT TO THE ART OF ASSOCIATION: A TOCQUEVILLIAN PERSPECTIVE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2008

Aurelian Craiutu
Affiliation:
Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington

Abstract

In the United States, the debate on civil associations has coincided with the revival of interest in the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, particularly Democracy in America (1835; 1840) in which he praised the Americans' propensity to form civil and political associations. Tocqueville regarded these associations as laboratories of democracy that teach citizens the art of being free and give them the opportunity to pursue their own interests in concert with others. Tocqueville's views on political and civil associations cannot be properly understood unless we also take into account the larger intellectual and political background of his native France. The main sections of this essay examine Tocqueville's analysis of civil and political associations in America. Special attention is paid to the strong relationship between democracy and civil and political associations and the effects that they have on promoting democratic citizenship, civility, and self-government.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation 2008

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27 The group of so-called French monarchiens included Jean-Joseph Mounier (1758–1806), Gérard de Lally Tollendal (1751–1830), Stanislas Marie Adelaide Clermont-Tonnerre (1757–1792), and Pierre Victor Malouet (1740–1814).

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48 On this topic, see Rosanvallon, Le modèle politique français, 158–64; and Craiutu, Aurelian, “Tocqueville and the Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires,” History of Political Thought 20, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 456–93Google Scholar.

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58 Tocqueville was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1839; he was reelected during the Second Republic (1841–1851). Tocqueville's political career came to an end after the coup d'état of December 2, 1851, by Louis Napoleon.

59 Louis-Adolphe Thiers (1797–1877) was a prominent French politician and historian who served as prime minister during the July Monarchy (from 1832 to 1836). François Guizot (1787–1874) was the most famous of the French Doctrinaires (see note 33 above). During the July Monarchy, he served as minister of education, minister of foreign affairs, and prime minister.

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