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De Tocqueville$
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Cheryl Welch

Print publication date: 2000

Print ISBN-13: 9780198781318

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198781318.001.0001

American Democracy: The Shape of Democracy Itself

Chapter:
(p. 49 ) 2 American Democracy: The Shape of Democracy Itself
Source:
De Tocqueville
Author(s):

Cheryl B. Welch

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198781318.003.0004

This chapter examines the contributions to social and political analysis of Tocqueville's major published texts: Democracy in America I, and Democracy in America II. In the first text, he argues that revolution temporarily perverts democracy as exhibited in France by class warfare, political extremism and distrust. In his second text, he notes the tendency of the revolutionary spirit to intensify mutual distrust and increase individualism. The chapter also considers the loose terminologies that forcers the reader to read carefully to his specific intentions and relevant content of discussion. The failure of others in understanding the true significance of his texts is attributed to his lack of precision in the use of important concepts.

Keywords:   political analysis, revolution, class warfare, distrust, precision, individualism, Democracy in America, political extremism

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