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    A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America
    A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America
    A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America
    Audiobook1 hour

    A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

    Written by Elizabeth Morrow

    Narrated by Macat.com

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840, challenged conventional thinking about democracy when it appeared—and is still cited by leading politicians today.

    Having witnessed some negative effects of democratic revolutions in his native France, Tocqueville visited America in 1831 to see what a functioning republic looked like. His main concerns were that democracy could make people too dependent on the state and that minority voices might not be heard—a problem he termed “The Tyranny of the Majority.” By examining America thoroughly, Tocqueville hoped to show how a democratic system could avoid these pitfalls.

    Tocqueville also made a number of accurate predictions about the future of the United States, anticipating that the debate over abolishing slavery would cause conflict and that the US and Russia would emerge as the world’s two great powers.

    The New York Times decided: “No better study of a nation’s institutions and culture than Tocqueville’s Democracy in America has ever been written by a foreign observer.”
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacat
    Release dateJul 15, 2016
    ISBN9781912283996
    A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

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    Reviews for A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

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    • 4/5
      The Macat Analysis series is very uneven, but this analysis of Toqueville's Democracy in America is one of the better ones. Elizabeth Morrow, a political scientist at King's College in London, draws out some of the main themes and concepts (e.g. equality vs. liberty, tyranny of majority, democratic despotism, social capital, civil society as counterbalance to centralized state power) and shows how they are still prominent in contemporary debates. In particular, she draws attention to the work of Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone), who draws on Tocqueville in researching the allegedly positive affects of voluntary associations in civil society on a vibrant and healthy democracy. She also focuses some attention on those who reject such views by pointing out that voluntary associations in civil society can just as easily promote bigotry and intolerance which may threaten or undermine Liberal Democracy.

      Unfortunately, as with other audiobooks on Scribd, this one ends abruptly before concluding (I wish Scribd would work out such kinks). Another negative factor is the clumsy format that Macat employs for all its Analysis books in the series. It forces the author to keep circling around the same points with only slight modifications in some cases. The result is a truncated and repetitive presentation in most cases. To the credit of this author, this book at least manages to avoid some such excessive repetition while developing concepts and ideas in reasonable depth. Still, the Macat format is a drawback making more natural prose nearly impossible.

      All things considered, a reasonably good and accessible way to learn not only about Toqueville, but his legacy with particular attention to debates between Putman and his detractors today. Recommended with above-mentioned caveats.