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Draft
On the Genre of Tocqueville’s Writing
Aristide Tessitore
Furman University
In the introduction to Democracy in America, Tocqueville famously calls for a
new political science for a world altogether new, and it would seem reasonable to
suppose that his own political studies are intended as examples. Nevertheless and
notwithstanding volumes of published texts—some of which have reached classic
status—the novel character of Tocqueville’s political science remains a matter of dispute.
As I hope to show, there are good reasons for continued controversy about an author
whose writing does not fit easily into existing categories.
In fact 150 years earlier, a new political science had been inaugurated by Thomas
Hobbes, one that is often regarded as the forerunner of contemporary “rational choice
theory.” Rejecting classical approaches to the study of politics, Hobbes, like his
contemporary Descartes, models his new political science on mathematics; geometry is
for him the only true science (Hobbes [1668] 1994, 19, 24, 100; cf. Descartes [1637]
1980, 4, 11-12, 19-20). Beginning with precise and methodical definitions, Hobbes
intends to avoid the “absurd” teachings of previous philosophers, and in so doing,
establish a firm foundation for future progress. Also like Descartes, Hobbes ridicules his
contemporaries for slavish adherence to ancient authorities. He likens those who take
their bearings from classic texts to birds “fluttering over their books.” After entering a
room by the chimney, they “flutter at the false light of a glass window, for want of wit to
consider which way they came in.” (Hobbes 1994, 19).
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Hobbes anchors his study in the
Convention