ROBERTO GIANNETTI
Alexis de Tocqueville: nuove categorie di interpretazione
N. 169
Summary — Recent years have witnessed a reappraisal of Alexis de Tocqueville’s political thought. While most scholars have concentrated their attention upon Part II of Democracy in America within the context of a debate on the concept of modernity, a relatively less known current of study has concentrated its efforts in a reassessment of Tocqueville’s work taken as a whole. The aim of this essay is to discuss some of the issues raised by the contributions which have developed such comprehensive framework.
From a methodological standpoint, it is argued that the main explanatory model adopted by Tocqueville - as demonstrated among other things, by his analysis of unintended social consequences - implies the adoption of methodological individualism and the assumption of rationality of individual actors. On a more substantive level, it is stressed that the role attributed to rational behavior entails a renewed attention towards Tocqueville’s analysis of historical events whose relevance has been widely acknowledged, such as political participation, democratic institutions and social change.