Lecture critique d'Alexis de Tocqueville
Institution:
Aix-Marseille 3Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
Alexis de tocqueville, readily presented as the democratic age's prophet and as one of the political litterature's intellectual leaders is basically an author representative of his time, and of its limits. He has less innovated than admirably taken up ideas wich were in the air at that time. Therefor, the extend of his contribution does not lie in the novelty of his thought, nor besides in the intensity of his democratic commitment, or in the discerning of his scientific analysis. His adhesion to democracy is an opportuneness choice, which never reached to supress his conservative preferences. His scientific written works, particularly in history of institutions on the precolonial america, the american democracy and the french ancien regime are teeming with outside borrowings, mistakes and imprecisions, in spite of some outstanding developments. The return to the ideas of the liberal nineteenth century and the wish of bringing out new roots to a political movement strongly afflicted from 1945 shed light on tocqueville's revival from thirty yaers
Abstract FR:
Alexis de tocqueville, qui est volontiers presente comme le prophete de l'age democratique et un des maitres-penseurs de la litterature politique, est essentiellement un auteur representatif de son epoque et des limites de celles-ci. Il a moins innove qu'admirablement repris des idees, qui etaient dans l'air du temps. L'importance de son apport ne tient donc pas a l'originalite de sa pensee, ni d'ailleurs a l'intensite de son engagement democratique ou a la pertinence de ses analyses scientifiques. L'adhesion a la democratie est chez lui un choix d'opportunite, qui n'est jamais parvenu a etouffer ses preferences conservatrices. Ses ecrits scientifiques, notamment en histoire des institutions, a propos de l'amerique coloniale, de la democratie americaine et de l'ancien regime francais, fourmillent d'emprunts exterieurs, d'erreurs et d'imprecisions, malgre quelques remarquables developpements. Le retour aux idees du xixe siecle liberal et la volonte de ressourcer un courant politique fortement eprouve depuis 1945 eclairent largement la resurrection de tocqueville operee depuis trente ans