Educating Democracy: Alexis de Tocqueville and Leadership in America

235 Pages·2010·0.82 MB·English

by  Brian Danoff

Educating Democracy
. . . . . . . . . .
Alexis de Tocqueville
and
Leadership in America
B R I A N D A N O F F

Educating Democracy

Educating Democracy
Alexis de Tocqueville and
Leadership in America
(cid:2)(cid:3)
Brian Danoff
iv Acknowledgments
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2010 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Danoff, Brian.
Educating democracy : Alexis de Tocqueville and leadership in America /
Brian Danoff.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-2961-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Citizenship—Study and teaching—United States. 2. Democracy—Study
and teaching—United States. 3. Civics—Study and teaching—United States.
4. Education—Aims and objectives—United States. 5. Political leadership—
United States—History. 6. Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805–1859—Infl uence.
I. Title.
LC1091.D26 2010
320.973—dc22 2009012996
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acknowledgments v
Contents
(cid:2)(cid:3)
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Tocqueville on Leadership and the Education of
Democracy 9
Chapter 2 The Antifederalists and Tocqueville on Democratic
Leadership and Democratic Authority 39
Chapter 3 Lincoln and Tocqueville on Democratic Leadership
and Self-Interest Properly Understood 67
Chapter 4 Wilson and Tocqueville on Leadership and the
“Character Foundations of American Democracy” 103
Chapter 5 The Vocation of the Democratic Moralist:
Putnam, Tocqueville, and the Education of
Democracy Today 141
Notes 159
Bibliography 199
Index 211
vi Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments vii
Acknowledgments
(cid:2)(cid:3)
I am greatly indebted to the late Wilson Carey McWilliams, who served
as advisor for the dissertation that grew into this book. Carey once wrote
that W.E.B. Du Bois “was always an ‘elitist,’ even at his most radically
democratic . . . because he was convinced of the need for exceptional
individuals . . . who see beyond the practical and the possible, exerting the
pull of high culture and theory.” A modest man, Carey was, nevertheless,
precisely one of these exceptional individuals, and I am so grateful to
have known—and to have learned from—this exemplary scholar, teacher,
citizen and friend. I miss him dearly.
I am also grateful to the other members of my dissertation com-
mittee. Dennis Bathory, Dan Tichenor, and Bruce Miroff each provided
stimulating comments, criticisms, and suggestions that were crucial for
the development of my ideas on Tocqueville, leadership, and American
political thought. While earning my PhD at Rutgers, I also learned a great
deal about political theory in seminars with Benjamin Barber, Gordon
Schochet, and Stephen Bronner. Thanks also to Clayton Sinyai, my fellow
graduate student, for being a formidable intellectual sparring partner as
well as a source of moral support.
My passion for political theory was fi rst inspired and nurtured by three
outstanding teachers—Peter Euben, Jack Schaar, and David Thomas—at
U.C. Santa Cruz, where I was an undergraduate. I am indebted to them
and also to Jim Miller, who was a wonderful mentor when I was an
MA student in the liberal studies program at the New School for Social
Research. As an MA student, I was also fortunate to learn from Nancy
Fraser and George Shulman.
Portions of this manuscript have been previously published as journal
articles. I am grateful to the journals’ editors and anonymous reviewers
for spurring me to think through my ideas in a more thoroughgoing
vii
viii Acknowledgments
manner. I also owe a major debt to Cheryl Welch and Bob Putnam for
offering comments and encouragement after reading some of the material
that has been incorporated into this book. Thanks are due as well to all
of the discussants who provided feedback on my research at professional
meetings. In addition to making presentations at the annual meetings of
various political science associations, I also presented some of the ideas
in this book at a conference on Tocqueville convened by the Workshop in
Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University. I am grateful
to Aurelian Craiutu and Elinor Ostrom for providing me with this oppor-
tunity. I also received valuable comments when I presented some of my
research on Tocqueville at a faculty research seminar held by the political
science department at Miami University. I thank all of my colleagues in
the political science department for providing a supportive environment
for my research and teaching in political theory.
I am very grateful to Michael Gibbons, Marc Landy, and another
anonymous reviewer at State University of New York Press for providing
enormously helpful comments that pushed me to improve the book manu-
script in a number of ways. For all of their support and assistance with
the publication process, I also thank Michael Rinella, Cathleen Collins,
Anne Valentine, Andrew Kenyon, Amanda Lanne, and Gary Dunham, the
executive director of State University of New York Press.
Miami University provided me with a research leave for one semes-
ter, which gave me the time to fi nish the book. Miami also provided me
with material support in the form of a summer research grant for work
on the manuscript. At Rutgers, a Louis Bevier Fellowship facilitated the
completion of the dissertation stage of the work.
I am truly blessed to have such supportive and loving parents, and I
owe them each so much. My mother helped spark my interest in politics
at a young age; I am grateful to her for that, and also for being a careful
reader of much of my work. My father helped hone my critical thinking
skills throughout my childhood by doing such things as requiring fam-
ily members to write reviews of the movies we watched on cable. (The
rule wasn’t followed for long.) Other beloved family members—Sharon,
Jim, Taffy, Jo, Orna, Sam, Ronny, and my grandparents—have also been
a great source of every kind of support. A very special thanks goes to
my son, Julian. Since he was born two years ago, he has brought me
immeasurable joy, every single day.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to my wife, Donna. Without her love,
grace, patience, humor, wisdom, and unfl agging encouragement, I could
never have completed this book. I cannot thank her enough for her sup-
port, and for reminding me of all that is important in life. With great
love, I dedicate this book to her.