21. Democratic Statecraft: Tocqueville's Democracy in America

Introduction to Political Philosophy (PLSC 114)

With the emergence of democracies in Europe and the New World at the beginning of the nineteenth century, political philosophers began to re-evaluate the relationship between freedom and equality. Tocqueville, in particular, saw the creation of new forms of social power that presented threats to human liberty. His most famous work, Democracy in America, was written for his French countrymen who were still devoted to the restoration of the monarchy and whom Tocqueville wanted to convince that the democratic social revolution he had witnessed in America was equally representative of France's future.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Tocqueville's Problem
08:36 - Chapter 2. Who Was Alexis de Tocqueville?
14:04 - Chapter 3. Democracy in America and the Letter to Kergolay
35:46 - Chapter 4. The CharacterIstics of American Democracy: Importance of Local Government

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2006.