Tocqueville's Thought On Democratic Crisis

Tocqueville combines the historical facts of American democracy and the French Revolution and systematically puts forward his own democratic thoughts,and is known as "the master of democratic theory." As a landmark person in the history of western democratic thought,he not only saw the irresistible trend in the democratic era,but also clearly realized the crises hidden in the development of democratic society.Therefore,how to lead the healthy development of democracy has become a lifelong issue for Tocqueville.This article believes that Tocqueville 's motivation to examine the crisis of democracy stems from the great impact of his noble orthodoxy on the reality of a democratic society,and reflects the extreme incompatibility and the formation of a new society that made him feel lost.Especially after inspecting the United States,Tocqueville was concerned about the many dilemmas behind American democracy,so he began to think deeply about the hidden crises in a democratic society,with a view to perfecting it to his ideal state.This article analyzes the two major elements of Tocqueville's democratic thought: freedom and equality,and the different development situations in a democratic society.It is learned that the fervent passion for equality in a democratic society prompts individuals to demand other aspects of identity in addition to equality of identity.Equality causes the spirit of freedom to be swallowed up;the tension between freedom and equality also urges people to pursue too much equality and ignore freedom.Then,this excessive pursuit of equalization is not only prone to most tyranny in politics,but also it is easy to breed individualistic and materialistic welfare concepts in society and promote the gradual atomization of social individuals.This isolated view of individuality and interest has intensified the emergence of modern authoritarianism,leaving people trapped in a mild autocracy without knowing it.Based on the above analysis,this article further studies the ways Tocqueville seeks to overcome for the crisis of democracy.Tocqueville believes that decentralization and township autonomy can weaken the unlimited authority of the majority,encourage people to actively participate in the management of the country,form aunique spirit of autonomy in political life,and provide an important system for ensuring the healthy operation of democracy Protection.The "right understanding of the principle of interests" adds a sense of reason and restraint to prevent the proliferation of individualism,and guides people's pursuit of personal interests onto the track of public interest,providing the focus and direction for democratic development.At the same time,Tocqueville believes that religion provides a pure and peaceful spiritual support for irritable democrats,can purify the materialistic soul,and is an important guarantee and support for democracy at the political and cultural level.And political freedom,as a recipe for resisting autocracy,allows all classes and citizens in the political community to participate in public affairs;this action that affects government decision-making and personnel rights has become an important support for the benign operation of democracy.Under contemporary conditions,the wave of democratization is sweeping the globe.Democracy,as a basic institutional model,has been implemented to varying degrees in most countries.The crisis of democracy has also exhibited many new features.There are many similarities in early warning.In this regard,this article focuses on the following four aspects: populism interprets the danger of "most tyranny" in a more radical and extreme way;individualism has evolved into extreme individuals characterized by personal standards,self-centeredness,and egoism Post-materialism transcends materialism's emphasis on industrial and commercial interests and gradually shifts to a pluralistic model,which increases the difficulty of political parties' governance;the "state-society" relationship has also been mutually opposed from the era of Tocqueville for a long time.Interactive co-governance and governance transition.The unavoidable modernity problems in these democratic societies can be traced to the origin and trajectory of their development in Tocqueville's thoughts of democratic crisis,and they all verify the scientificity and rationality of Tocqueville's thoughts of democratic crisis.Contemporary scholars Giovanni Sartori,Carol Pateman,and Isaiah Berlin also gave objective and scientific evaluation and analysis of Tocqueville's thoughts on democratic crisis from differentangles.Based on the needs of the development of the current era,through the interpretation of Tocqueville 's democratic crisis thoughts,he takes care of the process of human democratic practice with his insights.Although Tocqueville's ideological essence cannot be fully equivalent or transformed into realistic institutional arrangements,at least in the In the future system design and solutions to the democratic crisis,there are more references and suggestions,so as to move towards a more healthy and rational democratic road.