On Tocqeville's Liberalism Thought

MASTER S YSEAS Abstract Liberalism has always been the dominant ideology since the eighteen century. As a kind of political theory, liberalism mainly concerns how to restrict the power of country and leave adequate room for society and individuals. So, to some degree, liberalism is in accordance with market economy. Because the study of economic history discovered that the process of market system is gradually established and bettered is the process that country gradually loosens regulation on economy and retreat from economic domain. In the development history of liberalism, the period between John.Locke who lived in the seventeen century and John.MiIl who lived in the middle of the nineteen century is named classical liberalism. This dissertation takes Tocqeville who is an important thinker in classical liberalism history as an object, try hard to expound his thought and reveal the basic idea and tenet of liberalism. The whole article is composed of four parts. The first part deals with the chief points of the thoughts of Tocqeville. Tocqeville lived in the first half part of the nineteen century, at that time it happened that the democratization current in the world was promoted by the Industrial Revolution. As a liberalism thinker, Tocqeville found out the profound contradiction between democracy and liberty. The fundamental problem he put forward was how to keep a balance between democracy and liberty. Through historic research on France and social research on America, he enumerated some basic factors to restrict democracy with liberty, such as aristocrat, religion, township self-government, federal institution, justice independence and legal sprit, etc. The second part deals with the contribution that Tocqeville made. In the first time in history, he put forward the problem that the majority could suppress the minority by term of people sovereignty, namely, democratic monarch institution. As a liberalism thinker, he put forward the limit of liberty, he also insisted that the society exists prior to individuals, and criticized the isolated and atomized individualism. In addition, Tocqeville stressed that a civil society that is composed of the different and voluntary organizations can restrict the power of the nation. The third part deals with Tocqeville,s -status in the theory system of classical liberalism. He inherited and developed Mudsiju,s theory on divided power and representative institution, Constant,s critics on people sovereignty and enlightened John.MiIl. So, he was a connecting link between the preceding and the following. In the meantime, he drew on some thoughts from Burke who is a conservatism thinker, which caused that the liberalism thoughts of Tocqeville contained many conservatism factors. The concluding part deals with the significance of Tocqeville,s thoughts to contemporary world. From France revolution to present day, some countries in the world accepted the theory of people sovereignty which led to the loss of liberty. Tocqeville,s thoughts was contrary to people sovereignty, so it can enlighten that countries belonging to the third world and China that is establishing socialism democracy and the rule of law.