Living World Of Free Men: The Way To Autonomy

Tocqueville is considered to be one of the greatest ideologists of liberalism, whose work mainly focused on how to preserve freedom within democracy. In the early 90's, with the background of theory of civil society, some theorists re-discovered the meaning of Tocqueville's work, as in the history of, Tocqueville firstly realized the effects of civil society on freedom and democracy. This dissertation is based on his main ideas of civil society, but from different point of views and ways of thought.In Tocqueville's opinion, democracy is a result that is influenced by polity, society, religion and culture. Democracy is not only a system, but also a life and a feeling. He immersed in this democracy epoch; on the other hand, he searched after how to exceed this epoch. From Tocqueville, we see a danger that the state suppresses person's freedom and rights. State power and state intervention that are not restricted are durative menace to person's freedom and rights. He finds the civil society's function between the national authority and the individual freedom. Civil society is a bridge that maintains liberty and democracy between citizen and state. A lifeful civil society could enhance not only the democracy's expressive force, but also its representation and life force. Apart from civil society's function, Tocqueville finds a variety of hot potatoes on conflicts among the state, society and individual. As mentioned above,just because he is deeply concerned with this democracy epoch, he is worried about so much. And what is his transcend? It is that he finds a solution.The thesis's background is French autonomy before the revolution, cut-in from American autonomy. It comprehends Tocqueville's civil society theory putting in the state-society-individual frame, illustrates a civil society that is combined with superincumbent religion and autonomy. Such civil society could maintain democracy's energy for long; the way to autonomy is the living world of free men.The full text is divided into five chapters.The dissertation is organized in the way as follows; chapter one is introduction, which explains reasons and current situation of Tocqueville's research.Chapter two elaborates the situation of autonomy in French society before and after the revolution from Tocqueville's point of view. Before the revolution, the state governed the society, while everything was turned against the state after the revolution. Although the revolution cleaned out many of the old systems as well as consolidating centralization of power, Tocqueville realized that there was still a huge difference between autonomy in French society and the actual individual freedom.Chapter three explains autonomy mode in the US, which is totally opposite to the French case, as pointed out by Tocqueville. In the US, the society not only manages itself, but also manages for itself. This system is unique in the way that it is affected by both geographical environment and origins of the people. Therefore, it is far from enough to separate the reasons. The two factors provide sufficient material and mental condition for the formation of self-governing society. However, it is actual system that takes the autonomy mode to success. Tocqueville considers that the commonwealth, villages and towns, administration of justice offer actual system and maneuverability for autonomy mode in the US.Chapter four elaborates ordeals and resolvent in American autonomy mode. In the state-society-individual frame, American autonomy mode is not faultless, as there exists tyranny of the majority, centralization of power, individualism and so on. If these puzzle doms are not resolved, person's liberty is threatened by the state, meanwhile democracy couldn't maintain force for long. Tocqueville's resolvent constitutes a civil society that is combined with superincumbent religion and unreligious autonomy. The civil society could resolve the conflicts among the sate, society and individual. There is a demand constituting civil society between the state and society, and between the society and individual. And the state could conform with the civil society, as it offers rationality for constituting civil society. From individual freedom to colony's autonomy, the unreligious autonomy reacts on Tyranny of the Majority, centralization of power to restraining. The religion can restrict the individualism and egoism; on the other hand, it can inosculate with the civil society.Chapter five briefly comments on the Tocqueville's civil society theory . It is valuable that civil society theory is combined with autonomy and religion. The value contributes to the research of the western democracy theory, and it scans the relation between the state and civil society. It also contributes to avoiding the mistake on the relation between the autonomy and civil society. Meanwhile, the political theory is imperfect, there are several shortcomings. He didn't realize the abuses of the civil society, and yet he didn't give a full analysis on the partition between the national and regional affairs either. Tocqueville's civil society theory is revelatory to modern China.