D ESPITE his assertion that the first volume of Democracy in America (1835) would concentrate upon institutions, Tocqueville found himself finishing the draft manuscript in 1834 and unable to conclude his study without discussing race relations in the United States. In the end, he quickly penned a final chapter. That chapter-by far the book's longest-offers "Some Considerations on the Present State and Probable Future of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States." Tocqueville begins the chapter by acknowledging that its subject "is American without being democratic" (DA, p. 516), 1 and to the extent that it analyzes slavery in the South and the interactions of the Native Americans with the Anglo-European white Americans, 2 this is true. When read in the context of his broader analyses of the psychology of equality, of majoritarian power, and of the importance of mores over laws, however, Tocqueville's analysis of blackwhite race relations goes beyond its American context to offer an examination of the extra-legal barriers to inclusion and membership within a liberal democracy. As such, it offers a critical perspective on democratic theory, by suggesting that there are certain types of exclusions that cannot be resolved through formal institutions or by reformed processes of democratic deliberation.In spite of the length of the "Three Races" chapter, race has been an underinvestigated theme in Tocqueville scholarship, developing after the mid-1960s. Only recently has a small strand of scholarship begun to explore the "Three 1 All references to Democracy in America (DA) will be made parenthetically in the main text, with page numbers referring to Tocqueville [1835/1840] 1835.2 Tocqueville's discussion of Native Americans is not my focus here, but to move past that topic without drawing attention to the directness and forcefulness of the language in which Tocqueville condemns the injustice and criminality of US governmental policy toward the Native Americans would be remiss.
This paper revisits Tocqueville’s famous portrait of the American female, which begins with assertions of her equality to males but ends with her self-cloistering in the domestic sphere. Taking a cue from Tocqueville’s extended sketch of the “faded” pioneer wife in “A Fortnight in the Wilderness” and drawing connections to Tocqueville’s criticisms of the division of industrial labor, I argue that the American girl’s ostensibly free choice to remove herself from public life is not an act of freedom. Rather, it is a manifestation of a particular type of unfreedom that reveals underappreciated connections between the two great dangers about which Democracy in America warns: tyrannical majoritarianism and soft despotism. My argument that the girl’s choice to withdraw from public life is coerced rather than free thus highlights the nonpolitical sources of oppression that exist within democratic societies. The paper concludes by raising questions about the need for coercion within Tocquevillian democracy and the implications of this for Tocqueville’s “new” political science—indeed, for his liberalism more generally.
Joseph Addison's 1713 play, Cato: A Tragedy, dramatizes the final days of Cato the Younger's resistance to Julius Caesar before his eventual suicide at Utica in 46 BC. Although Addison initially seems to present Cato as a model for emulation, we argue that Addison is ultimately critical of both Cato and the Stoicism he embodies. Via the play's romantic subplot and via his work as an essayist, Addison offers a revision of the Catonic model, reworking it into a gentler model that elevates qualities such as love, friendship, and sympathy and that is more appropriate to the type of peaceful civil and commercial society he wishes to promote.
No abstract
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.