Abstract
This article addresses a puzzle in the history of academic disciplines: Why is Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, once considered a sociological classic, nowadays mostly praised as a classic in political philosophy? Existing approaches emphasize either aspects internal to the text or to the figure of the author, or external factors such as historical contexts and disciplinary dynamics. Our explanation questions the assumption that texts are stable and explores the pragmatic interplay between text-artifact-metaphor. The result is a pragmatic genealogy of the successive material incarnations of Democracy since 1945. This allows us to account for the various meanings that have been associated with Democracy (and Tocqueville) at key historical moments in terms of the cultural work of collectives of agents around the text and its material form so as to make it the icon of certain political and disciplinary projects.
Keywords: Tocqueville; Democracy in America; history of the social sciences; social theory; political theory; materiality
Keywords: Tocqueville; Democracy in America; history of the social sciences; social theory; political theory; materiality
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | The Sociological Quarterly |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Aug 2019 |
Bibliographical note
This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.Keywords
- Tocqueville; Democracy in America; history of the social sciences; social theory; political theory; materiality