Research on Tocqueville's thoughts of democratic culture

Abstract

Tocqueville's special contributions to political science are mainly as followings: In respect of normative theory, he defines the meaning of social despotism or tyranny of public opinion; in empirical statement, he puts forward the comprehensive "mores"(social culture atmosphere of democracy) theory in the background of modern democratic society. This thesis tries systematically to analyze and evaluate his democratic culture thought, which is the core of his mores theory, using the concept political culture of modern political science. This thesis is composed of three parts.Firstly, this thesis studies the academic context and social origin of Tocqueville's democratic culture thought. It is raised after the forefathers' political culture thoughts and his mores theory. And it socially results in the menace to liberty possibly brought about by equalization of modern society, that is concerned with by Tocqueville.Secondly, the thesis sums up how Tocqueville expounds profoundly democratic culture. Regarding to its source, it originates from equality, which is the main feature of modern social system, and influenced by the trend of political thoughts popularly in the democratic society. In its external form, it shows some characteristics such as rationalism, secularism, materialism, individualism, standardization and uniformity etc. in its aspect of political consequences, democratic culture affects political decision--making and revolutionary frequency, and is the psychological cause of governmental despotism, social despotism and welfare state.And then, the thesis analyses how Tocqueville advances the idea of how to remould democratic culture on the basis of the insights into its mechanism. The principle of remoulding is the combination of egoism and altruism, namely, the principle of self--interest rightly understood. The means of remoulding is the application of educational function of political freedom, supposing individual freedom is justly safeguarded. The ways of remoulding is to make citizens accept political education by means of using a set of social institutions. The goal of remoulding is, depending on political education exerted on citizens, to develop their civic virtune suitable for modern society, that is guided by the sense of freedom. It is Tocqueville's creative idea concerning political education as one of agents of political socialization, that is from beginning to end of this part. Finally, the thesis conclusively discusses the theoretical innovations and the practical enlightenments of Tocqueville's democratic culture thought. Its contributions theoretically are showed in general theory of political science, modernization theory, political culture theory, paradigm conversion of political study and political philosophy of liberalism. And its practical enlightenments are showed in, with reference to some refined ingredients of Tocqueville's democratic culture thought, how to make the political culture and the idea of political education in contemporary China march forward more smoothly into the course of modernization in the setting of modernization and market economy.

Alternate abstract:

托克维尔对政治学的独特贡献表现在两个方面：在规范理论方面提出了社会专制或舆论暴政的含义；在实证命题方面以现代民主社会为背景提出了完善的“民情”（即民主的社会文化氛围）说。本文试图以当代政治科学中的政治文化概念，对其民情说的内核棗民主文化思想进行系统的分析和评价。本文共分为三部分。首先，本文考察了托克维尔民主文化思想的学术背景和社会根源。托克维尔的民主文化思想是在前人的政治文化思想和其民情说的基础上提出的。而托克维尔所关注的近代社会的平等化可能带来的对自由的威胁是其民主文化思想的社会起因。其次，本文归纳了托克维尔对民主文化所进行的深刻剖析。在起因上，民主文化来自现代社会体制的平等特征并受到民主社会流行的政治思潮的影响。在表现形态上，民主文化表现出唯理主义、世俗主义、唯物主义、个人主义及标准化、一致性等特征。在政治影响上，民主文化对政治决策、革命频率有所影响，并且是政府专制、社会专制及福利国家的心理诱因。再次，本文分析了托克维尔在深刻剖析民主文化机理的基础上提出的改造民主文化的构想。民主文化的改造原则是自利与他利的结合（即正确理解的自利原则）；民主文化的改造手段是在维护个人自由的前提下，发挥政治自由的教育功能；民主文化的改造途径则是通过一系列社会设置的运作，使公民获得政治教育；民主文化的改造目标是通过公民的政治教育，培养其以自由意识为主导的现代社会的公民美德。贯穿本部分始终的是托克维尔对政治社会化的手段之一一一政治教育的独到见解。最后，本文在结语中讨论了托克维尔民主文化思想的理论创新和现实启示。托克维尔民主文化思想的理论创新表现在政治科学的一般理论、现代化理论、政治文化理论、政治学研究的范式转换及自由主义政治哲学等方面。而其民主文化思想的现实启示则是在现代化与市场经济的时代背景中，通过借鉴托克维尔民主文化思想中的某些精华部分，如何使当代中国的政治文化和政治教育理念更好地走向现代。