The Threats to Democracy in Light of the Thought of Alexis de Tocqueville and Herbert Marcuse

Authors

  • Ana María Woolvett

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31207/colloquia.v8i0.118

Keywords:

democracy, freedom, consumption, massification, public opinion

Abstract

This article aims to identify the characteristics of modern despotisms in democratic societies, which converge in a guardian state or a public opinion that can sometimes be despotic like political power. The ideas of Marcuse and Tocqueville are briefly analyzed on the concepts that are proposed as the foundations of this phenomenon: the idea of equality, individualism and materialism as enjoyment and well-being, and the weakening of freedom of thought and criticism. Thus, it seeks to make a very general, and therefore fragmentary, a sketch of the ideas of two such different authors, to propose a look that opens questions about the events that occur every day in our societies and that threaten to narrow freedom.

References

Aron, Raymond. 2004. Historia del pensamiento sociológico. Montesquieu, Comte, Marx, Tocqueville, Durkheim, Pareto, Weber. Editorial Tecnos. Madrid.

Marcuse, Herbert. 1993. El Hombre unidimensional. Ensayo sobre la Ideología de la Sociedad Industrial Avanzada. Editorial Planeta Agostini.

Mayer, Jacob Peter. 1968. Alexis de Tocqueville y Carlos Marx: afinidades y antagonismos. Revista de Estudios Políticos N° 157 p. 53–70.

de Tocqueville, Alexis. 2019. La democracia en América. Vol. II. Tercera Edición. Ciudad de México: Fondo de Cultura económica.

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Published

2021-12-21

Issue

Vol. 8 (2021): Colloquia, Academic journal of culture and thought 2021

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Ana María Woolvett

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