ALEXIS
VISCOUNT OF TOCQUEVILLE
A
PRESENTATION
Alexis de Tocqueville
was probably one of the most brilliant political thinkers of the nineteenth
century, and of all times. He can not fail to point out, beyond his passion for
freedom, his profound vision of democratic society and his prophetic assertions
about the future of the United States. Among the issues he addressed more
broadly, is the conception of democracy, an aspect that still today generates
challenges and questions for societies and governments.
Alexis Henri Charles
de Clérel, viscount de Tocqueville was born on June 29, 1805 in
Verneuil-sur-Seine (Isle of France) and died on April 16, 1859, in Cannes. He
was a French thinker, jurist, politician and historian, one of the most
important ideologues of liberalism, great-grandson of the also politician and
minister of Louis XVI, Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes.
Tocqueville
criticized the Terror; in fact, it differentiated two phases in the Revolution:
one of the freedom of the first times and another of hatred, that of the time
of the Terror. The author was a defender of the liberal and bourgeois aspects
of the Revolution, in addition to criticizing the romantic and popular vision
of Michelet.
Royer - Collard
stated that Tocqueville was the 19th century Montesquieu and that he had
written a new spirit of law.
my Invited on this
occasion is Alexis Henri Charles de Clérel, Viscount of Tocqueville, He was
born in Verneuil-sur-Seine ;, Isle of France on July 29, 1805 and died in
Cannes on April 16, 1859), belonged to a family Traditional aristocratic French
of the Normandy region, but despite coming from the elite, Tocqueville attached
us to a stationary vision with nostalgia for the privileges of the old regime.
For any student of
the political sciences it is almost obligatory to reread Tocqueville, besides
being a theoretician, he tried to live according to his principles, he was
without a doubt a practical politician, never obsessed with the power and his
political praxis, of that experience in life French public of his time
extracted criteria to analyze and judge behaviors and processes, without
attending to banalities for what makes more meritorious a simple desktop
observer.
But the rereading of
Tocqueville is necessary, among other things, because his thought has almost
erroneously been seen with ideological lenses, without attending to the social
and political complexity of his time because revolutions like the 1830 revived
his thinking.
So the life of
Tocqueville was marked by revolutions, its history seeks the medullar and
permanent, always sought the essence, its history was in fact, political
history, because besides being a historian it was political and it was
precisely that condition of protagonist of the time that goes from Napoleon
III; of their participation in events that result in incidents.
The enlightened
thought influenced, without a doubt, in Tocqueville, in his way of thinking and
living, the weltansChauung enlightened is not alien to the religious crises
that accompanied him, moving away from practicing his original Catholic faith
until 1848.
Tocqueville can be
summarized as a French thinker, jurist, politician and historian, precursor of
classical sociology and one of the most important ideologists of liberalism;
great-grandson of the also politician and minister of Louis XVI,
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes. Tocqueville is best known for
his work "Democracy in America" which had two volumes (1835 the
first, 1840 the second) and also for "The Old Regime and the
Revolution" published in 1856.
Another of his great
contributions was to convince his contemporaries that the sign of the times was
in the sense of democratization, but that the defense of democracy and
individual freedom required measures to prevent it from degenerating into a
populist Caesarism (like the one represented Napoleon III): division of powers,
political decentralization and, above all, promotion of the civic conscience of
citizens to make them lovers of freedom and able to resist against any
despotism.
Beyond his passion
for freedom, his profound vision of democratic society and his prophetic
assertions about the future of the United States. Among the issues he addressed
more broadly, is the conception of democracy, an aspect that still today
generates challenges and questions for societies and governments: What is the
basis of democracy? How can we ensure that it stays in time with our political
system?.
Finally, the insight
and depth of Tocqueville's diagnosis is surprising, to the extent that his
proposal maintains today the same validity as it had about 180 years ago. His
analysis does not reveal only our past; it also describes our present, and
penetrates our future. The power to build the democracy and freedom we want in
our society is in us. For this reason, it is important to ask ourselves: to
what extent are we committed to this project, which needs specifically from
each one, and that would change several aspects of our lives? It is time now to
act for a democratic and free society. It is time to move from what has been
said to what has been done.
Bye.
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| written: Omar Colmenares trujillo |
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