Conversations with Tocqueville

The questions and issues raised by Tocqueville in his monumental studies of France and America are just as crucial for understanding the evolution of democracy in the West and the development of democracy in the non-western world. They clearly show the breadth of Tocqueville's contributions to the development of modern social sciences. Among the questions addressed by Tocqueville were: How does the weight of the past affect the evolution of political institutions and political behavior? What impact do differences in physical environment have on the organization of society? What are the relationships between social equality, freedom, and democracy? To what extent does centralization destroy the capacity for local initiative and self-governance? What conditions are needed to nurture the flourishing of self-governing communities? What safeguards are needed to preserve freedom and to prevent incipient democracies from becoming dictatorships? Why has democracy had such a problem taking hold in many parts of the non-western world? How should one study democracy in non-western settings? Tocquevillian analytics can help us provide answers. Addressed to a wider audience than Tocqueville scholars, the book argues that Tocquevillian analytics can be used to understand developments in non-western as well as western societies and be updated to address such issues as globalization, ethnicity, New World-Old World comparisons, and East-West dynamics. The first part of the book examines the basic components of Tocquevillian analytics, outlining its stepwise, interdisciplinary approach to understanding societies and nations. The second part applies the Tocquevillian conceptual framework to the contemporary world and contains individual chapters on various regions of the worldDNorth America, Russia, Western Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Unlike previous collective works on Tocqueville,Conversations with Tocqueville does not offer a survey of the authors' views, but instead focuses on presenting a cohesive theoretical framework of analysis that can then be applied and adjusted to fit a multitude of settings.

Aurelian Craiutu is associate professor of political science at Indiana University and author of Liberalism under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires, Le Centre introuvable, and In Praise of Moderation. Sheldon Gellar is a research associate at Indiana UniversityOs Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and author of Democracy in Senegal: Tocquevillian Analytics in Africa, Structural Changes and Colonial Dependency: Senegal 1885D1945, and Senegal: An African Nation Between Islam and the West.

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. Tocqueville and Us
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. Citizen Sovereigns: The Implications of Hamilton's Query and Tocqueville's Conjecture about the Democratic Revolution
Part 4 Part I. Tocquevillian Analytics
Chapter 5 Chapter 3. Tocquevillian Analytics and the Global Democratic Revolution
Chapter 6 Chapter 4. What Kind of Social Scientist Was Tocqueville?
Part 7 Part II. Tocquevillian Analytics and the Contemporary World
Chapter 8 Chapter 5. Racial Equality and Social Equality: Understanding Tocqueville's Democratic Revolution and the American Civil Rights Movement, 19541970
Chapter 9 Chapter 6. Democracy? In Guatemala?
Chapter 10 Chapter 7. Grafting the Head of Liberty? Latin America's Move to the Left
Chapter 11 Chapter 8. Th e Peril of Democratic Despotism in West European Egalitarian Democracy
Chapter 12 Chapter 9. Democracy in Russia: A Tocquevillian Perspective
Chapter 13 Chapter 10. Tocqueville in Africa: Analyzing African Local Governance
Chapter 14 Chapter 11. Roots of Democracy in Burma
Chapter 15 Chapter 12. The Road to Democracy in China: A Tocquevillian Analysis
Chapter 16 Chapter 13. Tocqueville and Japan