Description
Book SynopsisIn 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville famously called for ''a new political science'' that could address the problems and possibilities of a ''world itself quite new.'' For Tocqueville, the democratic world needed not just a new political science but also new arts of statesmanship and leadership. In this volume, Brian Danoff and L. Joseph Hebert, Jr., have brought together a diverse set of essays revealing that Tocqueville''s understanding of democratic statesmanship remains highly relevant today. The first chapter of the book is a new translation of Tocqueville''s 1852 address to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, in which Tocqueville offers a profound exploration of the relationship between theory and practice, and between statesmanship and political philosophy. Subsequent chapters explore the relationship between Tocqueville''s ideas on statesmanship, on the one hand, and the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Montesquieu, the Puritans, the Framers of the U.S. Constitution,
Trade ReviewAt a time when the forces of administrative despotism are on the march and Winfreyesque rhetoric passes for moral leadership and intellectual sophistication, Brian Danoff and Joseph Hebert have assembled a compelling collection of timely essays on the political thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, that liberal thinker of the first rank who endeavored to see further than the parties without any pretense to postpartisanship, who understood that more democracy is not always the answer to every problem of democracy, and who concerned himself with educating democratic peoples so that they may live together as free citizens rather than exist independently as dependent subjects. This fine collection situates Tocqueville within the history of ideas, ancient and modern, and examines the significance of his observations, predictions, and prescriptions as they pertain to a wide variety of topics with contemporary relevance. The essays in this volume give articulation to the proper relationship between political theory, political science, and political practice, emphasizing the necessity for genuine republican statesmanship while honestly wondering about its chances given the trajectory of late modern America. -- Travis D. Smith, Concordia University, Montreal
At a time when the forces of administrative despotism are on the march and Winfreyesque rhetoric passes for moral leadership and intellectual sophistication, Brian Danoff and Joseph Hebert have assembled a compelling collection of timely essays on the political thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, that liberal thinker of the first rank who endeavored to see "further than the parties" without any pretense to postpartisanship, who understood that more democracy is not always the answer to every problem of democracy, and who concerned himself with educating democratic peoples so that they may live together as free citizens rather than exist independently as dependent subjects. This fine collection situates Tocqueville within the history of ideas, ancient and modern, and examines the significance of his observations, predictions, and prescriptions as they pertain to a wide variety of topics with contemporary relevance. The essays in this volume give articulation the proper relationship between political theory, political science, and political practice, emphasizing the necessity for genuine republican statesmanship while honestly wondering about its chances given the trajectory of late modern America. -- Travis D. Smith, Concordia University, Montreal
Table of Contents1 Acknowledgments 2 Introduction 3 Part I: Statesmanship and Political Philosophy 4 Speech Given to the Annual Public Meeting of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences on April 3, 1852 5 Leading by Leaving 6 Aristotle and Tocqueville on Statesmanship 7 Macchiavelli and Tocqueville on Majority Tyranny 8 Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and the Politics of Mores 9 Intellectuals and Statesmanship? Tocqueville, Oakeshott, and the Distinction between Theoretical and Practical Knowledge 10 Part II: Statesmanship and Government 11 Tocqueville's View of the American Presidency and the Limits of Democratic Statesmanship 12 Changing the People, Not Simply the President 13 Moderating the Penal State through Citizen Participation 14 Part III: Statsmanship Outside of Government 15 From Associations to Organizations 16 The Tragedy of American Progress 17 The Catholic Church in the Modern World 18 Tocqueville on How to Praise the Puritains Today 19 Part IV: Statesmanship Abroad 20 Tocqueville's Foreign Policy of Moderation and Democracy Expansion 21 The Twofold Challenge for Democratic Culture in Our Time
