Reading Tocqueville: From Oracle to Actor

201 Pages·2007·0.75 MB·English

by  Raf Geenens

Reading Tocqueville
From Oracle to Actor
Edited by
Raf Geenens and Annelien De Dijn
Reading Tocqueville
Also by Raf Geenens
DE STEM VAN HET VOLK: Democratie als Gesprek
(editor, with Ronald Tinnevelt)
Reading Tocqueville
From Oracle to Actor
Edited by
Raf Geenens
and
Annelien De Dijn
Editorial matter,selection,chapter 1 © Raf Geenens and
Annelien De Dijn 2007
All remaining chapters © respective authors 2007
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-0-230-52746-1
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Notes on Contributors viii
1 Tocqueville Today? Contexts, Interpretations
and Usages 1
Raf Geenens and Annelien De Dijn
2 Liberalism, Democracy and Empire:
Tocqueville on Algeria 12
Jennifer Pitts
3 Creating Concitoyens: Tocqueville
on the Legacy of Slavery 31
Cheryl Welch
4 Reading Tocqueville: Diachrony, Synchrony
and New Perspectives 52
Jean-Louis Benoît
5 The Return of Tocqueville in Contemporary
Political Thought: Individualism, Associationism,
Republicanism 71
Serge Audier
6 Democratic Threats and Threats to Democracy 90
Ringo Ossewaarde
7 A Secular Reading of Alexis de Tocqueville 112
Paul Cliteur
8 Democracy and Religion: Some
Tocquevillian Perspectives 132
Agnès Antoine
v
vi Contents
9 Tocqueville, European Integration and Free Moeurs 143
Larry Siedentop
10 Tocqueville and European Federalism: A Reply
to Larry Siedentop 155
Wilfried Swenden
Bibliography 176
Index 185
Acknowledgements
Bringing together diverse insights, ideas and perspectives into one single
volume, is an endeavor that one does not undertake alone. The editors
of this book would therefore like to thank a number of people. First of
all, we are immensely grateful to the authors, who kindly contributed
previously unpublished material to this volume. Their confidence in our
project, their patience throughout the sometimes lengthy editing
process, as well as their heartfelt encouragements are unequaled. (Un
très grand merci à tous!) Furthermore we would like to thank, at the
University of Antwerp and the Catholic University of Brussels: Peter De
Graeve, Tim Heysse and Fernand Tanghe. Without their inspiration and
encouragement, this book would not be what it is. We owe a special debt
to Sarah Allen, who was initially called upon as a translator (she trans-
lated Agnès Antoine’s, Serge Audier’s and Jean-Louis Benoît’s original
manuscripts into English) but turned out to be much more than that.
Apart from her accurate translations, her additional research and relent-
less attention to details contributed considerably to the book as a whole.
Most importantly, though, we would like to thank UCSIA (University
Centre Saint Ignatius Antwerp/www.ucsia.org), who generously sup-
ported the production of this book. Although rooted in a Christian tra-
dition, UCSIA offers an open, tolerant and interdisciplinary platform for
scholarly debate on issues related to religion, culture and society and
especially on fundamental issues affecting justice in society. In particu-
lar, we would like to thank UCSIA’s Geert Van Haverbeke, Chris
Timmerman, Barbara Segaert, Walter Nonneman and Luc Braeckmans.
Without their unremitting support and the personal confidence they
gave us, this book would never have come to fruition. Although Alexis
de Tocqueville had never been the focus of their work, the UCSIA-team
enthusiastically agreed, very soon in the process, that his ideas and
insights are not just valuable but might well be indispensable to their
mission of holding up a democratic culture in a multireligious and mul-
ticultural society. Their liberal commitment to the creation of this book
commands admiration.
vii
Notes on Contributors
Agnès Antoine
Agnès Antoine, a doctor in political sciences, currently holds a
professorship at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
(Paris). Her research focuses on the tension between the individual and
society, between contemplation and action, between religiosity and
democratic citizenship. Antoine is the author of Maine de Biran. Sujet et
politique (PUF, 1999) and L’Impensé de la démocratie. Tocqueville, la
citoyenneté et la religion (Fayard, 2003), for which she won the Prix de
thèse Auguste Comte and the Prix Gegner de l’Académie des Sciences
morales et politiques.
Serge Audier
Serge Audier is a doctor in philosophy and currently lectures on moral
and political philosophy at the Sorbonne University (Paris IV). His
publications include: Les Théories de la République (La Découverte,
2004), Raymond Aron. La démocratie conflictuelle (Michalon, 2004),
Machiavel, conflit et liberté (Vrin/EHESS, 2005) and Le socialisme libéral
(La Découverte, 2006). In his widely acclaimed Tocqueville retrouvé.
Genèse et enjeux du renouveau tocquevillien français (Vrin/EHESS, 2004)
he carefully rereads the Tocqueville interpretations provided by
Raymond Aron, François Furet, Claude Lefort and many other French
intellectuals.
Jean-Louis Benoît
Jean-Louis Benoît received a graduate degree in moral and political
philosophy from the Sorbonne University (Paris IV) and defended
hisPhDthesis, Tocqueville Moraliste, at the University of Caen. Hewasalec-
turer at the University of Caen and a teacher in pre-university classes. The
majority of his research has been devoted toTocqueville, on which he has
published the following works: Tome XIV of the Oeuvres Complètes.
Correspondance familiale deTocqueville(Gallimard, 1998), Tocqueville, textes
essentiels (Agora/Pocket, 2000), Tocqueville moraliste (Champion, 2004),
Tocqueville, textes économiques (with E. Keslassy, Agora/Pocket, 2004),
Comprendre Tocqueville (Armand Colin, 2004), Tocqueville, un destin para-
doxal(Bayard, 2005) andTocqueville, notes sur le Coran et autres textes sur les
religions(Bayard,2007).
viii
Notes on Contributors ix
Paul Cliteur
Paul Cliteur is a professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Leiden,
where he is also coordinator of the research programme on social
cohesion and the function of law. His fields of interest are: human
rights, religion, life- and worldviews, multiculturalism, the rule of law,
constitutionalism and constitutional change. His books include De
filosofie van mensenrechten (Ars Aequi, 1999) and Moreel Esperanto: naar
een autonome ethiek(De Arbeiderspers, 2007).
Annelien De Dijn
After stints as a fellow at the Remarque Institute, and as a visiting fellow
at Columbia University and Cambridge University, Annelien De Dijn
was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher at Leuven University. Her
research focuses on nineteenth-century French liberalism and Alexis de
Tocqueville, on which she has published in several scholarly journals.
Her book Political Thought in France from Montesquieu to Tocqueville:
Liberty in a Levelled Society will be published by Cambridge University
Press.
Raf Geenens
Raf Geenens studied at the universities of Brussels, Leuven and Paris
VIII, was a visiting student at the New School for Social Research and is
currently a researcher for the Political Philosophy Research Group of the
Catholic University of Brussels. He is preparing a PhD thesis on the role
of power in democracy, taking its point of departure in the works of
Jürgen Habermas and Claude Lefort. Together with Ronald Tinnevelt, he
edited an introductory volume to deliberative democracy: De stem van
het volk. Democratie als gesprek(LannooCampus, 2007).
Ringo Ossewaarde
Ringo Ossewaarde is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Twente.
In 2002 he completed his PhD, titled Tocqueville’s Catholic Liberalism, at
the London School of Economics. A rewritten version was published as
Tocqueville’s Moral and Political Thought: New Liberalism(Routledge, 2004).
Besides his participation in Tocqueville scholarship, his research interests
include public sociology, dialectics, self-government, individual respon-
sibility, cosmopolitanism, governance, sovereignty and subsidiarity. He is
also the author of Maatschappelijke Organisaties(Boom, 2006).
Jennifer Pitts
Jennifer Pitts is an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University
whose research interests in modern political and social thought include
British and French thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,