Book contents
- Parliamentarism
- Ideas in Context
- Parliamentarism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Eighteenth-Century House of Commons
- Chapter 2 Edmund Burke’s Theory of Parliamentary Politics
- Chapter 3 The French Revolution and the Liberal Parliamentary Turn
- Chapter 4 Reinventing Parliamentarism: The Significance of Benjamin Constant
- Chapter 5 Democracy in America, Parliamentarism in France: Tocqueville’s Unconventional Parliamentary Liberalism
- Chapter 6 John Stuart Mill and the Victorian Theory of Parliament
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Ideas in Context
Chapter 5 - Democracy in America, Parliamentarism in France: Tocqueville’s Unconventional Parliamentary Liberalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2019
- Parliamentarism
- Ideas in Context
- Parliamentarism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Eighteenth-Century House of Commons
- Chapter 2 Edmund Burke’s Theory of Parliamentary Politics
- Chapter 3 The French Revolution and the Liberal Parliamentary Turn
- Chapter 4 Reinventing Parliamentarism: The Significance of Benjamin Constant
- Chapter 5 Democracy in America, Parliamentarism in France: Tocqueville’s Unconventional Parliamentary Liberalism
- Chapter 6 John Stuart Mill and the Victorian Theory of Parliament
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Ideas in Context
Summary
While Alexis de Tocqueville is most famous for his analysis of American democracy, this chapter argues that when it came to France, he preferred parliamentarism over the American constitutional model. During his long career in French parliamentary politics, Tocqueville in fact developed a distinctive theory of parliamentarism, which was different from Constant’s, but which also differed from the conception of parliamentarism propagated by Constant’s great rivals, the Doctrinaires. Tocqueville rejected Constant’s argument for a monarch who reigned but did not govern. However, he agreed with Constant that corruption posed a severe threat to the survival of French parliamentarism.
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- ParliamentarismFrom Burke to Weber, pp. 144 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019