How Tocqueville Understood the Problem of Authority under Modern Democracy

What is it about?

Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the first philosophical observers of modern society to think through the implications of popular sovereignty. Modern society is a mass society, but less because the people rule themselves than owing to the sway of public opinion. Tocqueville saw that modern democratic culture discourages looking outside oneself for moral and political guidance, which paradoxically leads most people to adopt public opinion as their personal authority. Yet Tocqueville detects in this trend a grave threat to the viability of modern democracy, one whose consequences are especially felt in our own times.

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Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash

Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Dwelling on the problem of authority in mass society promises to enrich debates about the cynical nativism now menacing liberal democracies. Its origins are to be found less in economic upheaval and communication technology run amok than in the decay of a willingness to look beyond public opinion for a standard of moral and civic virtue.