Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859). Algunas acotaciones sobre biografía, contexto y aportes a la democracia

Abstract

El objetivo del artículo es presentar algunas de las principales ideas expuestas por Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)sobre democracia, revolución e igualad. Se plantea que este conjunto de nociones construyen su marco conceptual y le sirven para vincular teoría y praxis. Los comentarios finales, más que concluir el trabajo, ofician de breve recapitulación de los temas analizados y proponen un tema para trabajos futuros: el Tocqueville político, el diputado defensor de los intereses de Francia en el concierto europeo y los dilemas que la libertad e igualdad le producen ante los asuntos referidos a los problemas derivados de la segregación étnica y esclavitud.

Tocqueville (1805-1859), which are mainly present in his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution. It consists of four sections: the first one includes biographical aspects which aim to correlate the author’s thought and the context in which it develops; the second section presents some ideas related to his epistemological contributions so as to examine the way he explored social and political problems; the third section analyses Tocqueville’s notions on freedom, equality, individualism and revolution, and on other related concepts such as social status, governmental centralization and administrative decentralization, associationism and tyranny of the majority. This set of notions build Tocqueville’s conceptual framework and allow him to link theory and praxis. Finally, the concluding remarks, which, rather than complete the paper, serve as brief recap of the issues discussed and propose a topic for discussion in future papers: Tocqueville and politics, a defender of the interests of France in Europe and his dilemma over freedom and equality in connection with the problems of ethnic segregation and slavery.