|
''De la démocratie en Amérique'' ((:dəla demɔkʁasi ɑ̃n‿ameˈʁik); published in two volumes, the first in 1835〔 via Gallica; via Gallica〕 and the second in 1840〔 via Gallica; via Gallica〕) is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville. Its title translates as ''Of Democracy in America'', but English translations are usually titled simply ''Democracy in America''. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the past seven hundred years. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead. They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling the United States, studying the prisons, and collecting information on American society, including its religious, political, and economic character. The two also briefly visited Canada, spending a few days in the summer of 1831 in what was then Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario). After they returned to France in February 1832, Tocqueville and Beaumont submitted their report, ''Du système pénitentiaire aux États-Unis et de son application en France'', in 1833. When the first edition was published, Beaumont, sympathetic to social justice, was working on another book, ''Marie, ou, L'esclavage aux Etats-Unis'' (two volumes, 1835), a social critique and novel describing the separation of races in a moral society and the conditions of slaves in the United States. Before finishing ''Democracy in America'', Tocqueville believed that Beaumont's study of the United States would prove more comprehensive and penetrating. ==Purpose== He begins his book by describing the change in social conditions taking place. He observed that over the previous seven hundred years the social and economic conditions of men had become more equal. The aristocracy, Tocqueville believed, was gradually disappearing as the modern world experienced the beneficial effects of equality. Tocqueville traced the development of equality to a number of factors, such as granting all men permission to enter the clergy, widespread economic opportunity resulting from the growth of trade and commerce, the royal sale of titles of nobility as a monarchical fundraising tool, and the abolition of primogeniture. Tocqueville described this revolution as a "providential fact"〔 of an "irresistible revolution," leading some to criticize the determinism found in the book. However, based on Tocqueville's correspondences with friends and colleagues, Marvin Zetterbaum, Professor Emeritus at University of California Davis, concludes that the Frenchman never accepted democracy as determined or inevitable. He did, however, consider equality more just and therefore found himself among its partisans. Given the social state that was emerging, Tocqueville believed that a "new political science" would be needed. According to
The remainder of the book can be interpreted as an attempt to accomplish this goal thereby giving advice to those people who would experience this change in social states. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Democracy in America」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|