In a recent notable instance, John McGinnis has argued that Tocqueville's ideas about democracy, especially his views that decentralization and diffuse government and civic or voluntary associations can create valuable social norms, provide a persuasive and coherent justification for the conservative jurisprudence of the Rehnquist Court. Yet Tocqueville's insights into American democracy as of the 1830s undoubtedly constitute a rich source of constitutional thought-either as support for particular constitutional principles or as constitutional ideas that should be contested. " This praise should perhaps be tempered by consideration of Tocqueville' s purposes and the historical circumstances within which he worked and understood both democracy and America. Count Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America has been said to be "at once the best book ever written on democracy and the best book ever written on America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |