Tocqueville 21

Since my last column, remarkably little has changed in the presidential campaign. Observers mostly agreed that Kamala Harris decisively beat Donald Trump in their September 10 debate (Trump, of course, […]

By any reasonable measure it was a massacre. Overall, Kamala Harris performed brilliantly, under enormous pressure. She spoke lucidly, fluidly, convincingly, eloquently. She did not let Donald Trump fluster her. […]

  So where do things stand?  After some of the most dramatic events in recent American history—the Biden-Trump debate, the assassination attempt, Biden’s exit from the race, and Kamala Harris’s […]

Since Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, the revival of the Democratic Party has defied virtually all expectations. Vice-President Kamala Harris quickly and skillfully united the Democrats behind her, […]

  It has been just two and a half weeks since Joe Biden decided to end his campaign for reelection, and in that time the presidential race has been entirely […]

Autocracy vs. Democracy ? A New Geopolitical Landscape in France, Europe and The United States   A new issue of The Tocqueville Review is now available online (Vol. 45, No. 1) A social […]

Par Catherine Audard et Cécile Laborde. Le processus de sécularisation de la société française qui a commencé pendant la Révolution française et qui se poursuit de nos jours semble avant […]

You can call American politics a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. In less than two months, we have seen the former president and Republican nominee […]

As a historian, I like to think that the course of human events falls into regular, knowable patterns that a careful observer can uncover and explain. But there are days […]

For months the U.S. presidential contest seemed almost frozen in place, the two candidates already chosen, and most of the key events taking place in courthouses, not on the campaign […]

If any proof were still needed of the utter weirdness of American politics in 2024, it is this: A political candidate bribes a porn star to keep quiet about their […]

For the past couple of weeks, the presidential election has been stuck in a strange sort of split screen, as both candidates find themselves unwilling participants in dramas whose outcome […]

As I have written here before, much of the presidential election of 2024 will not take place on the campaign trail, but in courtrooms. This will be particularly true over […]

** This is James Stafford’s response to our forum on his book The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848.**   By James Stafford I’d like to start, […]

** This is the second in a series of three reviews of James Stafford’s The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848. Each day this week one review […]

** This is the second in a series of three reviews of James Stafford’s The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848. Each day this week one review […]

** This is the first in a series of three reviews of James Stafford’s The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848. Each day this week one review […]

Par Catherine Larrère et Lucile Schmid. Ce dossier, consacré à la question écologique, réunit des études sur les mobilisations de la société civile. S’agissant de The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, […]

Over the past two weeks, the chances of Donald Trump returning to power have grown considerably. Here are three reasons why. First, Trump has established beyond any doubt his complete […]

[NOTE TO READERS: This Election Chronicle is also being published in French and Spanish translations at Le Grand Continent]. As I predicted in an earlier post, the presidential campaign these […]

Donald Trump’s greatest gift, if you can call it that, is an unparalleled ability to focus attention on himself. That attention may be appalled. It may be admiring. But it […]

In 2023, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies began a partnership with the philosophy and social theory journal Analyse & Kritik. Here, Editor Anton Leist presents the second issue of […]

Professor George Ross is ad personam Jean Monet Chair at the University of Montreal, Moris Hillquit Professor Emeritus of Labor and Social Thought at Brandeis University, and a past chair […]

  Presidential elections are occasions of great drama and uncertainty. In some races, candidates can emerge from relative obscurity to blaze a path to the White House, like Jimmy Carter […]

Comprendre la ‘laïcité à la française’ : malentendus, mythes et réalités. Le nouveau numéro de La revue Tocqueville, publié en automne 2023, est désormais disponible en ligne. (Vol. 44, No. 2) […]

In 2023, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies began a partnership with the philosophy and social theory journal Analyse & Kritik. Director Stephen Sawyer recently exchanged with one of the […]

Tocqueville 21 was born of the belief that history, and historical insight, can and must contribute to our understanding of the contemporary political and moral landscape. As the American political […]

Vincent Duclert, historien, chercheur titulaire et ancien directeur du Centre Raymond Aron (CESPRA, EHESS-CNRS)   Raymond Aron est décédé le 17 octobre 1983 à 16h30, dans la voiture de l’Express […]

Appel à contribution | Call for Papers. (English below) Autour de Raymond Boudon : Savoirs fondés et bonnes raisons. Raymond Boudon (1934-2013) est l’un des sociologues les plus importants de […]

From the Social and Political Psychology Lab Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece — The recent Greek election results exhibited an almost unprecedented – and quite unforeseen […]

In early June, The Tocqueville Society hosted its annual conference, which took place this year at the American University of Paris. Organized around the theme “Autocratie vs. Démocratie”, the conference […]

  By Hasret Dikici Bilgin   The Turkish voters went to the polls twice in the last month, first for the parliamentary elections and the first round of the presidential […]

Dear Readers, This coming week is an important one for Tocqueville 21 and our sponsors at the Center for Critical Democracy Studies and The Tocqueville Review. On June 2-3, The […]

By Catherine Audard and Michel Forsé. Our article written for the half-century anniversary of Rawls’ A Theory of Justice is now available for free on Project MUSE. Throughout 2021, numerous […]

 Civil Institutions and Democratic Life in the United States In Honor of Olivier Zunz. Published in the fall of 2022, the latest issue of The Tocqueville Review is now available online. (Vol. […]

Rawls’s A Theory of Justice at Fifty, a special edition Published in the spring of 2022, the latest edition of The Tocqueville Review is now available online. (Vol. 43, No. 1) L’édition la […]

On John Rawls: A special edition of The Tocqueville Review. In the next few days, The Tocqueville Review will be publishing its Spring 2022 Edition. Keep a close look at […]

Published in the Fall of 2021, the latest edition of The Tocqueville Review is now available online. (Vol. 42, No. 2) L’édition la plus récente de La Revue Tocqueville, publiée en […]

  James McAuley, until recently the Paris correspondent for the Washington Post, has received glowing coverage of his book “The House of Fragile Things: Jewish Art Collectors and the Fall […]

For the first time in its history, the European Union will arm foreign governments in the name of fighting terrorism, protecting civilians, and stabilizing fragile states, using a €5 billion […]

Thomas Piketty a connu un succès fulgurant  aux États-Unis avec son ouvrage Le Capital au XXIe siècle qui a lancé une conversation nationale sur l’inégalité, son livre le plus récent, […]

This week, multiple articles highlight the continued waffling of the professional foreign policy establishment. In The National Interest, David V. Gioe offers a vision of American security imperatives wherein concerns abroad […]

Register here for a virtual conversation with Art Goldhammer on the Epistemology of Democracy: Authority, Anti-Elitism, and the Media. The event begins at 6:00 pm CDT today, April 20th, 2021, […]

  À l’occasion du bicentenaire de la mort de l’Empereur, l’ouvrage Napoléon et l’Empire Ottoman aborde un pan de la diplomatie française peu connu. Yannick Guillou dépeint un jeune Bonaparte […]

As Macron’s government continues its crusade against “Islamo-leftism” in France’s universities—led by ministers Frédérique Vidal and Jean-Michel Blanquer—academics speak out against what they see as an assault against academic freedom […]

Suite à de nouvelles révélations sur le paradis fiscal du Luxembourg, Thomas Piketty appelle à une « transformation profonde du système économique dans le sens de la justice et de […]

  Does militaristic foreign policy give carte blanche to civil strife at home? After the recent Capitol riots, the idea that “you reap what you sow” has circulated in the US […]

We held our first editorial meeting the morning after the attack on the US Capitol. This is a blog dedicated to exploring twentieth-first century democracy, and while much about the […]

En cette nouvelle année 2021, Tocqueville 21 est fier d’annoncer sa nouvelle équipe éditoriale. Ces talentueux écrivains, rédacteurs et intellectuels se joindront aux co-rédacteurs-en-chef actuels Jacob Hamburger et Danielle Charette. […]

As we enter 2021, Tocqueville 21 is proud to announce its new editorial team. These talented writers, editors, and scholars, who will be joining current co-editors Jacob Hamburger and Danielle […]

En France, encore une fois, l’on débat de la laïcité. Comme Patrick Weil nous rappelle, la laïcité c’est d’abord du droit, qui protège la liberté de conscience de chacun.e, et […]

Under fire from French officials and media figures, James McAuley of the Washington Post and Adam Nossiter of the New York Times defend their recent reporting. The two Paris correspondents […]

Le sociologue Farhad Khosrokhavar a publié dans Politico EU une critique de la « laïcité radicale » en France – ce qu’il compare à une religion d’État, même si cette religion est blasphématoire par […]

The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville Appel à candidatures Responsable éditorial du blog Tocqueville 21/Membre du comité de rédaction   MISE A JOUR : Nous acceptons de nouvelles candidatures pour cette position […]

The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville Call for Applications Tocqueville 21 Blog Editor/Early Career Board Member   UPDATE: We will continue accepting applications until December 1, 2020. If you are planning to […]

This week, a group of French scholars and writers published a “Manifesto of 100 Intellectuals,” which accused various scholars and journalists in France of complicity in terrorism, and called for […]

For the past several weeks, Charlie Hebdo columnist and novelist Yannick Haenel, together with the cartoonist François Boucq, has been chronicling the trials of alleged accomplices of the 2015 attackers against […]

  See below for information on an upcoming conference. Registration information can be found here.   Well Being/Bien-être On-line conference organised by the The Tocqueville Society/La Société Tocqueville and The Center for Critical […]

Si Alexis de Tocqueville rendait à nouveau visite aux Etats-Unis aujourd’hui, il serait inquiet pour le sort de leur démocratie, avancent Aurelian Craiutu, contributeur à La revue Tocqueville, et Sheldon […]

In a review for the Point, Scott Spillman discusses Men on Horseback by the Princeton historian David Bell. Bell’s book is a study in the modern phenomenon of charisma, which Max Weber called “the great revolutionary […]

H-Diplo brings together a roundtable featuring four reviews of Iain Stewart’s book, Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century. Aron is often characterized as a “Cold War liberal,” but Stewart adds nuance […]

La course au vaccin Covid-19 engendre-t-elle un nationalisme malsain ? Dans un article pour Politico, Elizabeth Ralph explore la manière dont les scientifiques en Allemagne, en Chine, au Royaume-Uni, en […]

  The latest issue of The Point asks, “What is the Nation For?” Tom Meany’s response? It depends. Throughout history, the idea of the “nation” has confronted sovereign power, international economic competition, […]

De simples réformes cosmétiques concernant les méthodes et la légitimité de la police aux États-Unis ne pourront jamais faire face à l’ampleur du problème de la violence policière, selon Jocelyn […]

Marilynne Robinson fears Americans are plagued by a sense of scarcity. Her latest piece in the New York Review of Books asks if Americans used to be more optimistic because […]

La Poste est immortalisée dans le premier article de la Constitution américaine, et Tocqueville a même parcouru une partie de son voyage à travers l’Amérique dans une calèche postale. Mais […]

  Does Joe Biden have a political ideology? Bernie Sanders has been likened to European socialists, while Donald Trump has similarities with Europe’s populist right. But, when it comes to […]

La présente pandémie n’est pas une crise pour l’Inde—au contraire, elle représente trois crises distinctes mais interconnectées, selon Mathieu Ferry, Govindan Venkatasubramanian, Isabelle Guérin et Marine Al Dahdah. D’abord, la […]

    As William Davies declares in the London Review of Books, “we are all Durkheimians now.” In the age of Covid-19, we are all looking to averages and aggregates to […]

Le coronavirus est-il la fin de la mondialisation ? C’est la question à laquelle s’adressent Henry Farrell et Abraham Newman dans Foreign Affairs. Dans l’économie mondialisée, grâce aux chaînes logistiques conçues pour fournir […]

  Thomas Piketty’s latest book, Capital and Ideology, appears in English this month, and the press will no doubt have more to say about Piketty’s call for a 90 percent inheritance tax […]

Le Pacte vert d’Ursula Von der Leyen n’est rien qu’un éco-blanchiment, écrivent Yanis Varoufakis and David Adler dans un article pour The Guardian. Les sommes sont insuffisantes. L’importance du capital […]

  Whatever you believe, you’re probably wrong about inequality. At least that’s what Jonathan Rothwell thinks. In an article for Foreign Policy, he argues that globalization and corporations are not […]

La revue Dissent consacre son dernier numéro à la question de « la démocratie et le barbarisme », réinterprétant la fameuse phrase de Rosa Luxembourg (« socialisme ou barbarisme ») […]

  Writing for the Age of Revolutions, Blake Smith returns to Emile Durkeim’s famous argument that the French Revolution displayed a religious “effervescence.” With Durkheim in mind, Smith revisits historian […]

Emmanuel Macron se veut un président « progressiste » et « modernisateur ». Dans un entretien pour l’Atlantico, Luc Rouban et David Sessions (qui a écrit pour Tocqueville 21 sur l’oeuvre […]

The crisis of liberalism lies in its inability to explain modern phenomena, Katrina Forrester argues in The Guardian. Attempting to understand the turbulent politics of recent years, liberals often point […]

  Bienvenue à notre première Revue de Presse 100% en français. Comme d’habitude, nous avons sélectionné des articles de la presse francophone et anglophone sur la politique et la culture […]

  We’ve taken a break from this format for a few weeks, but we’re back with some of our favorite writing from the month of October. Going forward, we will […]

With the passing of former French president Jacques Chirac, newspapers have struggled to pin down the man’s complex legacy. Le Monde highlights Chirac’s affable demeanor and his connection with French […]

The historian and Tocqueville21 contributor Sophia Rosenfeld reflects on conspiracy theories in The Nation.   Rosenfeld reviews a new book by Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People […]

  Must our political discourse be civil? Is incivility a mark of defiance, or its own form of virtue-signaling? Are rejections of politeness and refusal to debate deliberate moral choices, […]

  Would Tocqueville have gone to Burning Man? The New York Times describes the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer and his interest in the annual desert festival frequented by anarchists, […]

Boris Johnson’s decision to “prorogue” parliament has set off a fresh wave of Brexit controversy. In the TLS, Philip Salmon explains some notable historical examples of past prorogations. Salmon notes […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse, where we recap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. As always, the […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse, where we recap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. As always, the […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse, where we recap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. As always, […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse—now appearing on Sundays—where we recap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse, where we recap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. As always, […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse, where we recap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. As […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse, where we re-cap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. As […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s weekly revue de presse, where we re-cap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. As […]

Welcome to Tocqueville 21’s second weekly revue de presse, where we re-cap some of the most thought-provoking articles we’ve seen on democracy and politics in France, the US, and beyond. […]

Starting this weekend, we’re going to be trying something new on this blog: putting together a weekly collection of some of the most interesting articles, in English and French, that […]