Vertrouwen in Tocqueville

Abstract

Trust in Tocqueville. In recent years, the work of Alexis de Tocqueville has been rediscovered by a number of sociologists, who find in De la démocratie en Amérique the inspiration of a neo-Tocqevillean theory, in which associations within civil society are the source of social capital. Many of the neo-Tocquevillean theorists neglect the original insights of Tocqueville and the specific American, but also French circumstances in which he made his observations. As a result, neo-Tocquevilleans underestimate the role of the state in the development of civil associations, and overestimate the positive correlation between membership of civil associations and social capital.