Alexis de Tocqueville is hailed almost universally as the supreme oracle of the modern age, but on nearly every essential point the nineteenth-century French writer has been proven wrong. While its easy to explain why Tocqueville was widely off target, its hard to understand why ideologically diverse contemporary commentators have been led astray.
Unprophetic Tocqueville
How Democracy in America Got the Modern World Completely Wrong
By Daniel Choi
This
article
appeared in
the Fall 2007 issue of The Independent Review.
American HistoryDemocracyGovernment and PoliticsLaw and LibertyPhilosophy and ReligionPolitical HistoryPolitical Theory
Other Independent Review articles by Daniel Choi | |
Spring 2001 | Sovereign Virtue:The Theory and Practice of Equality |
Winter 1998/99 | The Growth of the Liberal Soul |