I thought about posting a Top 10 list of the books that have most influenced my political philosophy, but Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America towers so far above the rest that it frankly deserves a post all of its own. I've also included a link to an online version of the book for those who have never read it. I actually prefer the J.P. Mayer translation to the one online, but the differences are mainly ones of prose and not of substance.
The nice thing about reading Tocqueville is that you don't have to feel constrained to reading the book from cover to cover. The chapter titles are all so specific, and sometimes completely unrelated, that you can freely skip around and read the ones that catch your interest as independent essays unto themselves. One of my favorites is a chapter near the very end of Volume II entitled "What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations have to Fear."
Tocqueville's perceptive insights about American society and democracy are if anything more important today than they were in the early nineteenth century, and many contemporary authors continue to explore the relevance of his insights today. A good companion piece to Democracy in America is Habits of the Heart, co-written in the 1980's by the sociologist Robert Bellah. Among other things Bellah and his colleagues wrote very eloquently and movingly about the rise of individualism and the decline of republican ideals so much in need today.
The nice thing about reading Tocqueville is that you don't have to feel constrained to reading the book from cover to cover. The chapter titles are all so specific, and sometimes completely unrelated, that you can freely skip around and read the ones that catch your interest as independent essays unto themselves. One of my favorites is a chapter near the very end of Volume II entitled "What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations have to Fear."
Tocqueville's perceptive insights about American society and democracy are if anything more important today than they were in the early nineteenth century, and many contemporary authors continue to explore the relevance of his insights today. A good companion piece to Democracy in America is Habits of the Heart, co-written in the 1980's by the sociologist Robert Bellah. Among other things Bellah and his colleagues wrote very eloquently and movingly about the rise of individualism and the decline of republican ideals so much in need today.
2 comments:
Speaking of Democracy in America and deTocqueville, I am currently reading "Trail of Tears," by John Ehle. It's an EXTREMELY painful read, not just for what happened to the Cherokee, which was bad enough, but to read how the State of Georgia was willing to completely abolish democracy (arresting and abusing missionaries, for example, outlawing free speech and using the state militia to arrest dissenters) in their mad lust for land. And then to read how "icons" like Andrew Jackson (who owed his political career to the Cherokee) stood by and let it happen (another President who chose to ignore court rulings), frankly it could give you pause to wonder if a republic can ever survive people of power who are determined to flout the rule of law to get whatever they want.
Jackson is definitely not one of my favorite presidents. In fact I think it's safe to say he was the closest thing to a lunatic we've ever had in the White House.
I don't think a republic CAN long survive if people in power consistently flout the rule of law. I guess we've been fortunate to last as long as we've had because we DIDN'T consistently have people like Jackson in office.
Personally, I believe there has been a trend in recent years toward the erosion of the rule of law in this country, and it worries me. American society in Jackson's time was very different than it is now, more resistant (I would argue, and for reasons that Tocqueville chronicled in detail) to the materialistic temptations that contemporary Americans have chased with wild abandon, to the point that we seem to have succumbed to the "mild despotism" that Tocqueville warned about in that chapter I cited. When people become more obsessed with materialistic pleasures than they are in public affairs and the hard work of maintaining a healthy democracy, bad leaders tend to flourish.
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