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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Democracy And Its Friendly Critics: Tocqueville And Political Life Today (Book Review), Steven Michels
Democracy And Its Friendly Critics: Tocqueville And Political Life Today (Book Review), Steven Michels
Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications
Book review by Steven Michels.
Lawler, Peter Augustine, ed. Democracy and Its Friendly Critics: Tocqueville and Political Life Today. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2004. ISBN 9780739107614; 9780739107621 (pbk.)
When Democracies Fight: Tocqueville On The Democratic Peace, Steven Michels
When Democracies Fight: Tocqueville On The Democratic Peace, Steven Michels
Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications
Do democratic norms and political culture play a greater role than structural determinants in realizing a democratic peace? Alexis de Tocqueville, a hitherto unappreciated theorist of international politics, offered such a view 175 years ago. This article examines Tocqueville's perspective on civil-military relations and the connection between democracy and peace. Tocqueville concludes that the key to the pacifism of a democracy is the equality of conditions it enjoys and the education that its soldiers receive prior to entering the military. Thus, in Tocqueville's estimation, the democratic peace has little to do with the practice of democracy, and everything to do …