Construction Of The Modern Public Life: Tocqueville Political Philosophy

The object of this thesis is to investigate the political philosophy of Tocqueville. Along with the profound transformation from traditional society to modern society, constraints of thoughts,ideas and institutions in traditional society were gradually removed, subjectivity of individual had established, freedom have been the fundamental value of modern society. How to maintain and achieve modern freedom has been the focus of modern famous political philosophers, Tocqueville is one of them. Public perspective of idea of freedom in Tocqueville has profound dimension of political philosophy, which have put forward the requirement of a kind of public life and have provided an original point of thought for us to think about modern public life, which made him different from the early classical liberalism thinkers. So, the thesis will try to put Tocqueville in the age structure of the profound transformation from traditional society to modern society, on the basis of comparison with political philosophy of early western classical liberalism political thinkers, to study on the political philosophy of Tocqueville around the problem of public life and the possibility of it in modern society.Chapter one, mainly investigates background of times and problem consciousness of political philosophy of Tocqueville. This thesis thinks, the times of Tocqueville is the age of the profound transformation from traditional society to modern society, which is also the universal coming era of democracy, the writings of modern enlightenment thinkers made well preparations for arrival of the age, French revolution in1789is significant sign of coming of the era. On this basis, this thesis mainly discusses the problem consciousness of political philosophy of Tocqueville——the lack of public life, investigates the performances and profound influences on modern society because of the lack of public life in democratic conditions. This thesis points out that democratic mild tendency of despotism and closed politics of the Middle class are outstanding performances of the lack of public life in democratic conditions; what's more, the lack of public life in democratic conditions directly related to modern citizen's survival crisis and the establishment of modern democratic political order.Chapter two, mainly investigates the new political science of Tocqueville and will try to discuss the possibility of public life. In my opinion, Tocqueville turned to the politics and asked to create a new political science in the face of serious consequences of the lack of public life, which had laid the theoretical premise for public life of democratic society. The new political science of Tocqueville shows us:in modern society, politics not only is necessary, but also need to return to the society and human nature; the core of politics isn't the struggle of power, but is to improve continuously the soul of human beings; the fundamental purpose of the new political science of Tocqueville is to make weak atomized individuals of democratic age become lofty modern citizens, which is only can be achieved in public life, public life is the basic way to cultivate citizens.Chapter three, mainly investigates the problem that how to construct modern public life. This thesis interprets the elementary thought about how to construct modern public life from the dimension of idea, dimension of institution and dimension of technology. For the dimension of idea, it's necessary to get rid of several kinks of wrong ideas, such as pantheism,political atheism,materialism,the idea of nation of Physiocratic School,socialism,idea of depending on nation and so on. On the contrary, it is necessary to keep the belief of religion and the passion of pride, because the political dimension of religion and the passion of pride are useful to carry out public life. For the dimension of institution, this thesis points out that Tocqueville has distinguished between political centralization and administrative centralization, has put forward the institutional conception about political centralization and administrative decentralization, which could open wide space for the implementation of public life in democratic society. For the dimension of technology, this thesis argues that it is necessary to carry out public life from minor affairs, which can stimulate the interests of general public to take widely part in public life, which can cultivate the ability of general public to participate widely in public life, which can create conditions for the enduring promotion of public life. On the basis, this thesis discusses the following primary forms of public life:township autonomy,election, jury and association.Chapter four, this thesis investigates the value and significance of modern public life from the angles of democratic political order and freedom and dignity of modern persons. This thesis points out that in the course of transforming from traditional society to modern society, early modern political thinkers have regarded citizen as the core of constructing the modern political order, and Tocqueville is successor of this kind of intellectual tradition:for Tocqueville, public life could make general public come out from narrow private life and become real political persons, which would lay a broad social foundation for modern democratic political order. What's more, public life could contribute modern citizens to get rid of the myth of classical liberalism, make general citizens realize that only public liberty or political liberty can really ensure the fullness of citizen's freedom; only in public life, modern citizens could constantly get satisfaction and perfection, could truly feel the dignity as human beings.Conclusion part, this thesis attempts to show that democratic society is an equal mass society, the coming of democratic society marks privileged class is gradually disappearing and civilian class is continuously rising, so the political life that only satisfied and enjoyed by privileged class couldn't adapt to the meet of democratic society. In democratic society, political life need to be universally fulfilled, democratic politics should truly include civilian class, especially, the democratic politics of post-revolution should truly include ordinary people who didn't exercise in political life and make them come out from narrow private life, cultivate their habit of taking part in public life, constantly improve their mental state and the group intellectual literacy of whole nation. Only do like this, it can lay a solid social foundation for modern democratic political order and really reflect the common good of mankind——freedom and dignity.