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What’s in a name? Not much, or perhaps all too much, in the opinion of Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure. In an appearance this morning on France Inter, he announced […]

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 […]

L’Humanité m’a demandé une chronique encore sur le résultat de l’élection du 3 novembre. Retrouvez ci-dessous l’article publié le 9 novembre dans le journal.   Joe Biden sera président. Les […]

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 […]

Chaque lundi avant le 3 novembre, je publie une tribune dans l’Humanité sur l’élection présidentielle aux États-Unis. Je republie le cinquième article, publié le 2 novembre, aujourd’hui, le jour de l’élection.   […]

Chaque lundi avant le 3 novembre, je publie une tribune dans l’Humanité sur l’élection présidentielle aux États-Unis. Chaque tribune sera republiée ici le mercredi. Voici le quatrième article, publié le 26 octobre. […]

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 […]

During The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville‘s recent conference on the notion of Well-Being, economist Eloi Laurent gave a presentation entitled “Human Well-being and the Biosphere: Connecting the Circles,” in which […]

In addition to my ongoing column on the 2020 elections in L’Humanité, I have a new piece up in Jacobin on the Supreme Court’s, inspired by Tocqueville’s chapter on l’esprit légiste.   Here’s a […]

Chaque lundi avant le 3 novembre, je publie une tribune dans l’Humanité sur l’élection présidentielle aux États-Unis. Chaque tribune sera republiée ici le mercredi. Voici le troisième article, publié le 19 octobre. […]

Chaque lundi avant le 3 novembre, je publie une tribune dans l’Humanité sur l’élection présidentielle aux États-Unis. Chaque tribune sera republiée ici le mercredi. Voici le deuxième article, publié le 12 octobre.  […]

  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 […]

The Covid-19 epidemic has me feeling stuck. I’m held in place by confinement, border closures and quarantines, and held in time by the deferral, or cancellation, of the future—a year’s […]

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 […]

Chaque lundi avant le 3 novembre, je publie une tribune dans l’Humanité sur l’élection présidentielle aux États-Unis. Chaque tribune sera republiée ici le mercredi, avec l’accord du journal. Voici le premier […]

Editor’s note: this text by Patrick Weil is adapted from the introduction of Georges Clemenceau : Lettres d’Amérique. Translation by Justin Saint-Loubert-Bié.   The four years Clemenceau spent in the […]

I’ve been quiet for so long that some of you must have concluded that this blog had ceased to exist. The political situation here in the US has been so […]

Represented in governments across Europe and at the vanguard of the founding of the European project, Christian Democracy was one of the most important postwar political ideologies. Yet surprisingly few […]

Alors que les manifestations et les révoltes se multiplient au niveau mondial depuis deux ans, notre stagiaire Justin Saint-Loubert-Bié a interviewé Alain Bertho, professeur d’anthropologie à l’Université de Paris 8 […]

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 […]

Review of Matthew B. Crawford, Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road (William Morrow, 2020).   Can rats drive? So asks Matthew Crawford, the playfully self-styled “philosopher-mechanic” […]

To honor the life and work of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we are republishing the article she wrote in 1993 for The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, 1993, Vol. XIV n°1 (pp.125- […]

  James Burnham’s revival is well underway across the American Right. Although few of his works are still in print today, the neoconservative commentator and American Cold Warrior is certainly […]

Note de l’éditeur : Correspondant du journal Le Temps aux Etats-Unis, le jeune Georges Clemenceau nous dépeint une Amérique étrangement familière. La Guerre de Sécession est terminée mais la politique n’a […]

Editor’s note: Patrick Weil and Thomas Macé’s new edition of the young Georges Clemenceau’s writings from America, Georges Clemenceau : Lettres d’Amérique, features a preface written by Bruce Ackerman. This preface, […]

Note de l’éditeur : Correspondant du journal Le Temps aux Etats-Unis, le jeune Georges Clemenceau nous dépeint une Amérique étrangement familière. La Guerre de Sécession est terminée mais la politique n’a […]

Note de l’éditeur : ce texte de Patrick Weil est adapté de l’introduction de Georges Clemenceau : Lettres d’Amérique. Tous les sources en anglais ont été préservées dans leur langue d’origine. […]

Nous revenons la semaine prochaine de notre pause estivale avec une série de publications à l’occasion de la parution de Georges Clemenceau : Lettres d’Amérique. Cette collection d’écrits du jeune […]

Dans un article pour AOC, le contributeur du blog Dick Howard discute la politique à l’approche des élections américaines et demande, comment en sommes-nous arrivés là?     Photo credit: […]

We’re taking a few weeks off from the blog starting this week. See you back in September!   In the meantime, in lieu of our Revue de Presse, please enjoy […]

This entry was the co-winner in our spring-summer Blogging Democracy Contest. We asked University of Chicago undergraduates whether Tocqueville was right to describe national elections as moments of great “agitation.” Below is Deven Mukkamala’s […]

This entry was the co-winner in our spring-summer Blogging Democracy Contest. We asked University of Chicago undergraduates whether Tocqueville was right to describe national elections as moments of great “agitation.” Below is Carissa Kumar’s […]

We’re proud to announce the winners of Tocqueville 21’s second Blogging Democracy contest! Over the course of the spring and summer, students in the Division of the Social Sciences at […]

In our societies, the Good and the True are ultimate values. They are ideals we strive for and the primary standards by which we judge people and claims. There are […]

What does individualism mean under quarantine? “Social distancing” demands civic isolation. And yet, cooperating with this isolation for the good of public health requires personal sacrifice. One of the ironies […]

European summits are odd affairs, in which the high and mighty are reduced to pulling all-nighters, like second-year students obliged to endure a college bull session–which by some accounts these […]

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 […]

  Is it still I that burns there all alone? Unrecognizable? memories denied? O life, o life: being outside. And I in flames—no one is left—unknown. —Rainer Maria Rilke, Komm […]

Our apologies to anyone who has recently tried to contact us through the email address contact@tocqueville21.com. We have been unable to access this account for some time now, but we […]

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 […]

Emmanuel Macron’s self-reinvention did not get very far. The just-appointed Castex government is as unexciting as the new prime minister himself. After Philippe, Castaner and Belloubet were shown the door. […]

Suite à la publication de mon dernier post sur les manifestations Black Lives Matter aux États-Unis, Christophe Deroubaix, journaliste à l’Humanité, m’a interrogé sur les luttes sociales et antiracistes, sur […]

There should be no surprise about Macron’s dismissal of Édouard Philippe: any prime minister who is more popular than his president is ripe for sacking. And it is doubtful that […]

Justine Lacroix, Jean-Yves Pranchère et Anton Jäger ont eu l’amabilité de partager quelques-unes de leurs réflexions critiques à propos de mon livre Slow Démocratie, paru à l’automne 2019.   Le […]

  Readers of The Tocqueville Review/ La Revue Tocqueville may recognize Dick Howard, an American political theorist who often discusses US politics on French media, as the author of a […]

Yes, the Greens did very well in yesterday’s Covid-delayed second round of municipal elections. They captured some major prizes: Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, and, most surprisingly, Bordeaux. They retained Grenoble. They […]

Ceci est le second texte dans notre échange sur Slow Démocratie, par David Djaïz (Editions Allary, 2019).    Few will remember the “Slow Science” movement. In 2011, a group of academics […]

  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, […]

For several years, observers have noted that many Chinese intellectuals who identified as “new left” critics of the PRC’s market reforms in the 1990s and 2000s have since then not […]

Ceci est le premier texte dans notre échange sur Slow Démocratie, par David Djaïz (Editions Allary, 2019).    Le livre de David Djaïz dresse un tableau clair et pédagogique de la […]

L’« euphorie » de la mondialisation est derrière nous. Après quatre décennies d’exaltation d’un monde plus ouvert, prospère, interdépendant et interconnecté – une terre plate, une planète sans frontières – […]

A few months ago, after we ran a series of reflections on mass protests in 2019, I wrote a post on why the United States had not seen the kind […]

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 […]

Il est toujours difficile, au cœur d’un moment important, de faire la part de l’événement et de ce qui est appelé à durer, des circonstances accidentelles et des virages définitifs. […]

A movie star and a reality-TV buffoon have won the presidency of the United States in recent years. Is it conceivable that the mantle of Charles de Gaulle will devolve […]

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 […]

There are now numerous Covid rescue plans on the table for European leaders to consider. There is no need to run them down here because Prof. David Cameron of Yale […]

In a recording for the Talking Intellectual History series at the University of St Andrews, Ryan Patrick Hanley and I discussed his new work on François de Salignac de la […]

The pandemic has presented Emmanuel Macron with an opportunity. He can now reimagine his presidency without appearing to have been forced into retreat by the Gilets Jaunes and opponents of […]

  The release of Booksellers, now available for virtual screening, coincides with a nostalgia many of us feel for those days when we could freely browse the stacks. D. W. […]

Greece handled the coronavirus crisis “so well, so far” according to CNN journalist Nic Robertson. The country’s strict lockdown ended on 5 May 2020, after fifty days with schools and […]

It took a pandemic, but Germany’s Angela Merkel has at last agreed with French president Emmanuel Macron that a fiscal response to the crisis is necessary, that it will be […]

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 […]

These are difficult days for political commentators. Politics-as-usual has given way to quarrels over the Covid-19 response. Commentators can choose one of two courses: concentrate on the errors, inevitably plentiful […]

  Liberal democracy is an oxymoron. Or rather, it’s a site of confrontation between contradictory discourses, between the universalist aspirations of philosophy and the partisanship of historiography. So insinuates Michel […]

  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 […]

Last week I had the opportunity to interview the intellectual historian and Renaissance scholar James Hankins about his new book Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy (Harvard University […]

I reflect on the corona crisis and the concomitant “Rebirth of Tragedy” at The Public Seminar. And I summarize France’s just-announced deconfinement policy for The American Prospect.

Just after becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee earlier this month, Joe Biden publicly endorsed lowering Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 60. Despite the extraordinary health crisis that has coincided […]

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 […]

This entry was a finalist in our inaugural Blogging Democracy Contest. University of Chicago undergraduates were asked, “Does climate crisis demand a new social contract?” Below is Samuel Clark’s reply. […]

This entry was a finalist in our inaugural Blogging Democracy Contest. University of Chicago undergraduates were asked, “Does climate crisis demand a new social contract?” Below is Caleb Weis’s reply. […]

This entry was a finalist in our inaugural Blogging Democracy Contest. University of Chicago undergraduates were asked, “Does climate crisis demand a new social contract?” Below is Goksu Zeybek’s reply.  […]

This entry was a finalist in our inaugural Blogging Democracy Contest. University of Chicago undergraduates were asked, “Does climate crisis demand a new social contract?” Below is Kendall Chappell’s reply.  […]

This is the winning entry in our inaugural Blogging Democracy Contest. University of Chicago undergraduates were asked, “Does climate crisis demand a new social contract?” Below is David Liu’s reply. […]

We’re proud to announce the winners of our first-ever “Blogging Democracy” Contest. In partnership with the Democracy Initiative and Division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, we, […]

Review of Stephen Harrigan, Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas (University of Texas Press, 2019)   Years ago, I was onboard a flight from Los Angeles to Dallas. As […]

    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 […]

Like I assume many are feeling these days, I’ve been somewhat at a loss to write about the Covid-19 crisis and what it might mean for contemporary democratic societies. This […]

A l’heure où l’épidémie de Covid-19 place l’Italie du nord (Lombardie) comme l’un des épicentres majeurs de la pandémie mondiale avec le plus fort nombre de victimes à ce jour, […]

Tocquevillians recently suffered a major loss: Melvin Richter, the great historian of political thought, died a little over a week ago. Mel was the kindest of men, and intellectually generous […]

To conclude our book forum on In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics in the West (Columbia University Press, 2019), we spoke with Wendy Brown about some of the key questions […]

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 […]

This is the fourth post in our review forum of Wendy Brown’s In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics in the West (Columbia University Press, 2019).   Wendy Brown’s latest […]

This is the third post in our review forum of Wendy Brown’s In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics in the West (Columbia University Press, 2019).   I am grateful […]

This is the second post in our review forum of Wendy Brown’s In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics in the West (Columbia University Press, 2019).   Wendy Brown’s In […]

This is the first post in our review forum of  Wendy Brown’s In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics in the West (Columbia University Press, 2019).   With […]

When we first started Tocqueville 21 in early 2018, Wendy Brown was one of the very first people we reached out to for insights into our contemporary democratic world. Her […]

  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 […]

With the publication of Capital in the Twenty-First Century in 2013, Thomas Piketty became perhaps the world’s best-known chronicler and theorist of global inequality. His latest book, Capital and Ideology, […]

Until last week, the impending municipal elections in France were distinguished only by the eagerness of candidates across France to dissociate themselves from any of the political parties, affiliation with […]

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 […]

William Selinger offers a response to his reviewers in our “Parliamentary Thinking” book forum.    It is a pleasure to respond to Georgios Varouxakis and Lucia Rubinelli’s commentaries on Parliamentarism: […]

  This is the second review in our “Parliamentary Thinking” book forum.    Review of William Selinger, Parliamentarism: From Burke to Weber (Cambridge University Press, 2019).   Historians of political […]

This is the first review in our “Parliamentary Thinking” book forum.      Review of William Selinger, Parliamentarism: From Burke to Weber (Cambridge University Press, 2019).   William Selinger’s book […]

This is the launch of a joint book forum on “Parliamentary Thinking.”   William Selinger, Parliamentarism: From Burke to Weber (Cambridge University Press, 2019)   Gregory Conti, Parliament the Mirror of […]

  I staffed the polls as a volunteer Election Officer because I wanted to see democracy in action. Instead, I got an intimate understanding of one of its greatest failures. […]

  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 […]