TOCQUEVILLE PASSIONATE BEAST - A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

In this article I argue that Tocqueville's view of democracy in Democracy in America (1835/1987) is in large measure given content and structure by the metaphor theme ''DEMOCRACY IS A (PASSIONATE) PERSON.'' The analysis of Tocqueville's metaphors reveals that he saw American democracy as a highly defective system in which a dangerous social force needs to be controlled by other social forces. This result goes against the commonly held view that Tocqueville had a very positive opinion of American democracy. Issues that the ''PERSON'' metaphor allows us to examine include: What is the relation between the body politic and the ''PERSON'' metaphor? Was Tocqueville an essentialist or an environmentalist in his position regarding American democracy? To what degree did the ''PERSON'' metaphor enable Tocqueville to come up with an adequate conceptualization of American democracy? I suggest that the ''PERSON'' metaphor is a much more complex idea than that of the body politic, that Tocqueville is both an essentialist and an environmentalist, and that the ''PERSON'' metaphor, although an improvement on the body politic, does not work for democracy.