Alexis de Tocqueville : the first social scientist / Jon Elster.

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Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English Publication details: New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.Edition: 1stDescription: x, 202 p. : ill. ; 23 cmISBN:

9780521740074

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

300.92 22 ELS

Online resources:

Contents:

Preference formation -- Belief formation -- Self-interest and individualism -- Passions -- Desires, opportunities, capacities -- Patterns of social causality -- Equality and mobility -- Democratic government -- Revolution --

Summary: This book proposes a new interpretation of Alexis de Tocqueville that views him first and foremost as a social scientist rather than as a political theorist. Drawing on his earlier work on the explanation of social behavior, Jon Elster argues that Tocqueville's main claim to our attention today rests on the large number of exportable causal mechanisms to be found in his work, many of which are still worthy of further exploration. Elster proposes a novel reading of Democracy in America in which the key explanatory variable is the rapid economic and political turnover rather than equality of wealth at any given point in time. He also offers a reading of The Ancien regime and the Revolution as grounded in the psychological relations among the peasantry, the bourgeoisie, and the nobility. Consistently going beyond exegetical commentary, Elster argues that Tocqueville is eminently worth reading today for his substantive and methodological insights.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
General Books	CUTN Central Library Social Sciences	Non-fiction	300.92 ELS (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		43444

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Previous	300.723 RUS Managing applied social research :	300.723 SAP Survey research /	300.723 SQU What is narrative research? /	300.92 ELS Alexis de Tocqueville :	300.954 CHA Innovations in Social Sciences	301 ALL The social lens : an invitation to social and sociological theory	301 BAK பண்பாட்டு மானிடவியல்	Next

Preference formation --
Belief formation --
Self-interest and individualism --
Passions --
Desires, opportunities, capacities --
Patterns of social causality --
Equality and mobility --
Democratic government --
Revolution --

This book proposes a new interpretation of Alexis de Tocqueville that views him first and foremost as a social scientist rather than as a political theorist. Drawing on his earlier work on the explanation of social behavior, Jon Elster argues that Tocqueville's main claim to our attention today rests on the large number of exportable causal mechanisms to be found in his work, many of which are still worthy of further exploration. Elster proposes a novel reading of Democracy in America in which the key explanatory variable is the rapid economic and political turnover rather than equality of wealth at any given point in time. He also offers a reading of The Ancien regime and the Revolution as grounded in the psychological relations among the peasantry, the bourgeoisie, and the nobility. Consistently going beyond exegetical commentary, Elster argues that Tocqueville is eminently worth reading today for his substantive and methodological insights.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-197) and index.

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