Calmann-Lévy has published a new edition of Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," first published in 1835, a few days before crucial U.S. midterm elections scheduled for Nov. 3. The edition includes a new preface by Dominique Schnapper, director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, in which she examines American political life under President Trump, according to excerpts from the preface.
The excerpts ask whether the recent evolution of U.S. society should be studied to analyze how democracies die. They also ask whether the American example does not show, in a particularly visible way and with global consequences, a crisis affecting all liberal democracies. According to the excerpts, the election of Donald Trump is both a symbol and an accelerator of developments that raise the question of how far a society can reinterpret its origins without betraying its spirit.
The text recalls that Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont crossed the Atlantic in 1831 to understand democracy in its pure state—a democracy that was democratic from its origins—while European democracies, even when affirmed through revolt against aristocratic inheritance, remained marked by their long history. The excerpts also point to what they describe as the seemingly irresistible rise of far-right parties across European countries.
Sources: Le Monde International.