Tag: Bureaucracy

Topics

Other Works

  • Writings on Empire and Slavery

    - Writings on Empire and Slavery, ed. and trans. Jennifer Pitts.  (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2003)
    Excerpt: SOME IDEAS ABOUT WHAT PREVENTS THE FRENCH FROM HAVING GOOD COLONIES (1833) Even supposing that the territory that is to contain the colony has been discovered and that it combines the conditions necessary for the success of the enterprise, there… More

Commentary

  • “M. de Tocqueville on Democracy in America” by J.S. Mill

    - Cohen, Marshall, ed. The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill. New York: The Modern Library, 1961.
    Fascinating review of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America by Tocqueville’s colleague and correspondent, John Stuart Mill. The letter reveals the enormous respect Mill had for Tocqueville but also the differences between the two thinkers, even as… More

  • Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect

    - Paul A Rahe.  Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010)
    Excerpt:   In early November 1836, when Tocqueville wrote to Louis de Kergorlay to voice his frustration and his worries, he complained that “a multitude of ideas remains obscure in my mind,” ad he lamented that, in the absence of his childhood… More

Multimedia

  • Tocqueville and Socialism

    - "Tocqueville and Socialism," C-Span Discussion, September 12, 1997
    Tocqueville and Socialism The panel talked about the philosophy of Alexis de Tocqueville. They compared his writings to those of Rousseau and Marx, along with other contemporary thinkers. They focused on the conflict between individualism and collectivism… More

  • On Religion and Rational Control

    - Harvey Mansfield, "On Religion and Rational Control," Bradley Lecture at AEI, November 3, 2008
    Lecture: On Religion and Rational Control “Rational control” is the subjection of society to reason as opposed to superstition, prejudice, or tradition, with the aim of getting us to behave better. Alexis de Tocqueville says this idea or practice began… More