Tocqueville and Weber on the sociological origins of citizenship: The political culture of American democracy

While Alexis de Tocqueville's commentary on American democracy is famous, Max Weber's is far less so. However, in scattered writings, Weber addresses two of the themes at the centre of Tocqueville's analysis of the American political culture's "manners and mores": the potential for a "tyranny of the majority" in the US and the critical role of civil associations. By reference to these two themes, this study seeks to examine the divergent perspectives of these classical theorists on the political culture of the US, contrast Tocqueville's more structural and interest-based mode of analysis to Weber's emphasis upon the significance of values and beliefs, and comment upon, in light of the insights offered by both theorists, the sociological origins of citizenship. Unlike Tocqueville, Weber sees an odd juxtaposition-an accentuated, "world mastery" individualism and an accentuated orientation to civic sphere ideals-at the centre of the American political culture.