| Alexis De Tocqueville |
Article Index for Alexis De |
Articles about Alexis De Tocqueville |
Website Links For Alexis De |
Information AboutAlexis De Tocqueville |
For other uses, see Tocqueville (disambiguation) Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville ( and 1840 ) and '' The Old Regime And The Revolution '' ( 1856 ). He championed Liberty and Democracy . Alexis de Tocqueville observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth. He was born in Verneuil-sur-Seine ( Île-de-France ) and died in Cannes , although his family had its origins in the landed Nobility of Normandy , where several places are named after his family. His work based on his travels in the United States , ''Democracy in America'', is frequently used in courses in 19th Century United States history. An eminent representative of the Liberalism political tradition, his advocacy of private Charity rather than Government Aid to assist the poor has often been cited admiringly by Conservative s and Classical Liberal s, particularly in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Tocqueville also made an observational tour of England, producing ''Memoir on Pauperism''. In 1841 and 1846 , he traveled to Algeria . His first travel inspired him ''Travail sur l'Algérie'', in which he criticized the French model of colonization, based on an Assimilationist view, to which he prefered the British model of Indirect Rule , which didn't mix different populations together. He went as far as openly advocating Racial Segregation between the European Colons and the " Arabs " through the implementation of two different legislative systems (half a century before its effective implementation with the 1881 Indigenous code). ''DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA'' In '' Democracy In America '' (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville praised the New World and the Democracy it would bring, while at the same time warning against the dangers of Individualism , which could only be averted by associations. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced Liberty and Equality , concern for the individual as well as the community. Tocqueville thought that extreme social equality would lead to isolation, more intervention by the government and thus less liberty. A critic of Individualism , Alexis de Tocqueville thought that Association , the coming together of people for common purpose, would bind Americans to an idea of nation larger than selfish desires, thus making a Civil Society which wasn't exclusively dependent of the state. As a supporter of Colonialism , he also endorced the common Racialist views of his epoch, stating for example that among the "widely differing families of men, the first which attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power and in enjoyment, is the white or European, the man pre-eminent; and in subordinate grades, the negro and the Indian ...Both of them occupy an inferior rank in the country they inhabit...." Beginning of chapter 18 of '' Democracy In America '', "The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States" . He thus limited democracy to the Europeans, stating that Native Americans would become extinct because they were too proud too assimilate, and also explaining why persons of African descent had marks of slavery,and Europeans who had been enslaved did not have the marks of slavery. According to him, African Americans were inferior when it came to their facial and physical features, intelligence, marriages, their families, or husband- wife and parent-child relations in particular. Removal of this population from America was thereby the best solution to problems of race relations in America for both Americans of African and European descent. French historian of Colonialism Olivier LeCour Grandmaison has underlined how Tocqueville openly talked of " Extermination " about the colonization of Western United States and the Indian Removal period 1 . However, if Tocqueville shared these common views of his epoch, he opposed Gobineau 's Scientific Racism theories which the later had exposed in his essay on '' The Inequality Of Human Races '' (1853-55) See ''Correspondance avec Arthur de Gobineau'', quoted by Jean-Louis Benoît . THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ALGERIA While most French intellectuals prefer to make of Tocqueville the representant of the liberal traditions, historian Olivier LeCour Grandmaison demonstrated that in less noble works, Tocqueville made the apology of the brutal techniques employed during the 1830s Conquest Of Algeria : "In France I have often heard people I respect, but do not approve, deplore army burning harvests, emptying granaries and seizing unarmed men, women and children. As I see it, these are unfortunate necessities that any people wishing to make war on the Arabs must accept... I believe the laws of war entitle us to ravage the country and that we must do this, either by destroying crops at harvest time, or all the time by making rapid incursions, known as raids, the aim of which is to carry off men and flocks" 2 (quoting Alexis de Tocqueville, ''Travail sur l’Algérie'' in ''Œuvres complètes'', Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de La Pléiade , 1991, pp 704 and 705). "Whatever the case, continued Tocqueville, we may say in a general manner that all , 1991,p 806 (quoted in 5> . Years before the Crémieux Decrees and the 1881 Indigenous Code that would separate European Jews colons, given French citizenship, and Muslims, Tocqueville advocated Racial Segregation in Algeria: "There should therefore be two quite distinct legislations in Africa, for there are two very separate communities. There is absolutely nothing to prevent us treating Europeans as if they were on their own, as the rules established for them will only ever apply to them" ''Travail sur l'Algérie'', ''op.cit.'' p 752 (quoted in 6) However, LeCour Grandmaison's work has been contested by Jean-Louis Benoît, who claimed that these quotes (also used by Tzvetan Todorov ) had been instrumentalized to discredit Tocqueville. However, Jean-Louis Benoît did admit that Tocqueville was a strong support of colonialism and of segregation between Europeans and Arabs. In a reference to an August 22, 1837 proposal, Benoît shows that Tocqueville distinguished the Berbers from the Arabs , and considered that these last ones should have a self-government (a bit on the model of British Indirect Rule , thus going against the French Assimiliationist stance). Benoît thus admits that Tocqueville proned racial segregation. Benoît also quotes Tocqueville's 1847 ''Rapport sur l'Algérie'': "Let's not repeat, in the middle of the 19th century, the history of the conquest of America. Let's not imitate those bloody examples that the human kind's opinion has seared". Arguments in favor of Tocqueville QUOTATIONS
REFERENCES WORKS
SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|