Tocqueville and the dynamics of progress and crisis in democracy

This article investigates how the dynamics of progress and crisis in democracy appear essentially interconnected for Tocqueville in this French thinker's analyses. Tocqueville reflects how democracy altered the habits and customs of subjects in modernity. Democracy provided a previously non-existent social mobility, improving the lives of individuals considering the spirit of equality. However,Tocqueville emphasizes social, economic and political improvement limits in capitalism, in which subjects begin to develop a feeling of melancholy and frustration, in addition to a growing individualism, which can erode the bonds of solidarity fundamental to democracy. Above all, there is the risk of the existence of despotic forms within democratic institutions, in addition to the incorporation of the inequalities of ancient times into democracy itself. In this sense,Tocqueville demonstrated how the dynamics of progress and crisis coexist in democracy, analyzing political, social and economic phenomena, which point both to progress and, atthesametime,toacrisis inherenttosuch progress,with the possibilityofthe degeneration of both democracy and its spirit of equality. This approach is scarcely debated in Tocqueville studies, although it is crucial for political philosophy.