SOCI 3692 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Alexis De Tocqueville, Conformity, Mobilities
13 Nov 2017
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Relative to the united states he is a double outsider. Had political ambitions and expected to gain fame and attention from this book. Wrote this book because he believed that democracy was going to come to europe, it was only a matter of time. Many of the concepts he comes up with cannot be understood unless you realize he is an aristocrat. In the united states often understood itself as a republic at that time. He means by aristocratic society that there are inferior and superior roles in society a vertically constructed society. By democratic society he means a horizontally constructed. Everyone is born equal and similar to each other. If you are similar to each other than no one has the right to rule over another. In aristocracy people are not born equal and see each other fundamentally different. I a world of aristocracy you do not see yourself as autonomous and belong to a chain of being.
