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Democracy's Family Values: Alexis de Tocqueville on Anxiety, Fear and Desire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2001

Laura Janara
Laura Janara
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
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Extract

Standing interpretations of the family relations depicted in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America project onto his portrait of democracy a strong public-private dichotomy. However, de Tocqueville insists that family life is embedded in the dynamics that shape the broader society and culture. Investigating this claim yields a psychological account of the desires, fears and anxieties that haunt democratic society. These passions foment a paradoxical mix of egalitarianism and hierarchy, liberty and subjugation, within family life and beyond. De Tocqueville's fundamental thesis that democracy boasts healthy and unhealthy potentialities is better understood when the idea of family as a discrete sphere is abandoned.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , September 2001 , pp. 551 - 578
Copyright
© The Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique

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