Suchergebnisse

Tocqueville discussed at least 5 characteristics of democracy that temporarily restrained the tendency to selfinterest: the family, community, religion, a sense of the future, laws and mores, and the necessity of the work ethic. He feared the moment of plenitude, not because he was against the comforts of life, but because by the time a commercial society produces this comparative abundance, the ethic of selfinterest probably will have undermined all these 6 restraints. (JLN)

THE AUTHOR STATES THAT TACITUS OFFERED A BETTER THEORY OF DESPOTISISM THAN DID PLATO OR ARISTOTLE. HE DIVIDES HIS ANALYSIS OF TACITUS' THEORY OF DESPOTISM INTO: DESPOTISM AS ADMINISTRATION, THE OVERT MEANS OF CONTROL, ISOLATION AND PRIVATIZATION, MUTUAL SUSPICION AND CONTROL OF THE PRIVATE, THE DEPOTISM OF PLEASURE AND DESIRE, THE TYRANNY OF DESIRE, THE CORRUPTION OF LANGUAGE; AND INSINCERITY, HYPOCRISY AND ROLE-PLAYING. THE AUTHOR CONCLUDES WITH AN ITEMIZATION OF SHORTCOMINGS IN TACITUS' THEORY OF DESPOTISM.

THIS ARTICLE ASKS WHY TOCQUEVILLE WAS SO SUCCESSFUL IN FORETELLING FUTURE EVENTS BY ATTEMPTING TO UNDERSTAND HOW HE CONCEPTUALIZED EVENTS. THE LESSONS WHICH HIS METHODS HAVE FOR US ARE COMMENTED UPON AS WELL.