From Democracy to Despotism: Tocqueville on Slavery, Colonialism, and “Other”

Öz

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was born in 1805 to a noble family in Verneuil. He belonged to an aristocratic family dating back to the 15th century. He is known mostly as far-seeing thinker and politician. After his US sojourn, Tocqueville published a study on the young American democracy called Democracy in America, which put him on the map during and after his lifetime. He was actively involved with the various political and social problems of his day, such as colonization, slavery and inequality. His analyses on the transitivity between democracy and despotism are very important to understand the nature of modern society. Analyses by Tocqueville of colonialism clearly put forth why the modern society needs an “other” and violence to legitimize itself. He considers colonialism as a complementary element of modern society and thinks that colonial violence outside of the country is required for the prevention of despotism within the country. His contradictory opinions on colonialism and slavery do not, as it is often claimed, arise from political indecisiveness or philosophical contradiction; rather, his opinion is due to the theoretical framework of his analyses of modern society. Henceforth, the article will treat Tocqueville within the scope of his approach to the “other”, to transitivity in his analyses on despotism, colonialism, and to the nature and structure of modern society.

Kaynakça

1. Beaumont, Gustave de (1998). Marie or, Slavery in the United States: A Novel of Jacksonian America (translated into English by Barbara Chapman; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
2. Beaumont, Gustave de and Tocqueville, Alexis de (1964). On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press).
3. Boesche, Roger (1980). "The Prison: Tocqueville’s Model for Despotism," The Western Political Quarterly 33/4, 550-563. https://doi.org/10.2307/448071
4. https://doi.org/10.1177/106591298003300408
5. ______ (1987). The Strange Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press).
6. Drescher, Seymour (1968a). Dilemmas of Democracy: Tocqueville and Modernization (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press).
7. ______ (1968b). Tocqueville and Beaumont on Social Reform (New York: Harper & Row).
8. Drescher, Seymour and Emmer, Pieter C. (eds.). (2010). Who Abolished Slavery? Slave Revolts and Abolutionism: A Debate with João Pedro Marquez (Oxford: Berghahn Books).

9. Engels, Friedrich (1975). "The Condition of the Working-Class in England," in Marks and Engels Collected Works (New York: International Publishers), IV, 295-597.
10. Foucault, Michel (1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (translated into English by Alan Sheridan; 2nd edn., New York: Vintage Books).
11. Geggus, David Patrick (1985). "Haiti and the Abolitionists: Opinion, Propaganda and International Politics in Britain and France, 1804-1838," in David Richardson (ed.), Abolition and Its Aftermath: The Historical Context, 1790-1916 (London: Frank and Cass), 113-140.
12. ______ (ed.) (2001). The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina).
13. Gershman, Sally (1976). "Alexis de Tocqueville and Slavery," French Historical Studies 9/3, 467-483. https://doi.org/10.2307/286232
14. Greiman, Jennifer (2010). Democracy’s Spectacle: Sovereignty and Public Life in Antebellum American Writing (New York: Fordham University Press). https://doi.org/10.5422/fordham/9780823230990.001.0001
15. Jetté, M. M. (2007). "Alexis de Tocqueville," Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World, I, 525-526.
16. Kahraman, Kemal (1993). "Cezayir (Osmanlı Dönemi)," Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA),VII, 486-389.
17. Lawlor, Mary (1959). Alexis de Tocqueville in the Chamber of Deputies: His Views on Foreign and Colonial Policy (PhD dissertation; Washington: Catholic University of America Press).
18. Manent, Pierre (1996). Tocqueville and the Nature of Democracy (translated into English by John Waggoner; Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield).
19. Mansfield, Harvey C. (1996) "Foreword," in Pierre Manent, Tocqueville and the Nature of Democracy (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield), vii-ix.
20. Nimtz, August H. (2003). Marx, Tocqueville, and Race in America: The "Absolute Democracy" or "Defiled Republic" (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books).
21. Pitts, Jennifer (2005). A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France (Princeton: Princeton University Press). https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400826636
22. Richter, Melvin (1958). "The Study of Man: A Debate on Race," Commentary 25, 151-160.
23. ______ (1963). "Tocqueville on Algeria," The Review of Politics 25/3, 362-398. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500006112
24. Said, Edward W. (1977). Orientalism (London: Penguin Books).
25. Schaub, Diana J. (1998). "Perspectives on Slavery: Beaumont’s Marie and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America," Legal Studies Forum 22/4, 608-626.
26. Stokes, Curtis (1990). "Tocqueville and the Problem of Racial Inequality," The Journal of Negro History 75/1-2, 1-15.
27. Swedberg, Richard (2009). Tocqueville’s Political Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
28. Tocqueville, Alexis de (1840). Report to the Chamber of Deputies on the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies (Boston: James Munroe and Company).
29. ______ (1856). The Old Regime and the Revolution (translated into English by John Bonner; New York: Harper & Brothers).
30. ______ (1862a). "To M. Gustave De Beaumon, October 9, 1843," in idem., Memoir, Letters, and Remains Alexis de Tocqueville (Boston: Ticknor and Fields), II, 74-75.
31. ______ (1862b). "To J. S. Mill, Esq., November 15, 1839," in idem., Memoir, Letters, and Remains Alexis de Tocqueville, (Boston: Ticknor and Fields), II, 57-58.
32. ______ (1862c). "To M. de Crocelle, Oct. 11, 1846," in idem., Memoir, Letters, and Remains Alexis de Tocqueville (Boston: Ticknor and Fields), II, 83-85.
33. ______ (1958). Journeys to England and Ireland. (eds. J. P. Mayer and G. Lawrence; New Haven: Yale University Press).
34. ______ (1959). The European Revolution & Correspondence with Gobineau (ed. John Lukacs; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday).
35. ______ (1970). Recollections (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday).
36. ______ (1985). "Tocqueville to Henry Reeve, April 12, 1840," in Roger Boesche (ed.), Selected Letters on Politics and Society (translated by Roger Boesche and James Toupin; Berkeley: University of California Press), 141-142.
37. ______ (2001a). "Essay on Algeria (October 1841)," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), 59-116.
38. ______ (2001b). "First Letter on Algeria (23 June 1837)," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 5-13).
39. ______ (2001c). "First Report on Algeria (1847)," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 129-173).
40. ______ (2001d). "Notes on the Koran," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 27-35).
41. ______ (2001e). "Notes on the Voyage to Algeria in 1841," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 36-55).
42. ______ (2001f). "Second Letter on Algeria (22 August 1837)," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 14-26).
43. ______ (2001g). "Some Ideas about What Prevents the French from Having Good Colonies (1833)," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1-4).
44. ______ (2001h). "The Emancipation of Slaves (1843)," in idem., Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 199-226).
45. ______ (2001i). Writings on Empire and Slavery (edited and translated by Jennifer Pitts; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
46. ______ (2010a). Democracy in America: Historical-Critical Edition of De la démocratie en Amérique, vol. I, (translated into English by James T. Schleifer, ed. Eduardo Nolla; Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.).
47. ______ (2010b). Democracy in America: Historical-Critical Edition of De la démocratie en Amérique, vol. II, (translated into English by James T. Schleifer, ed. Eduardo Nolla; Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.).
48. ______ (2010c). Democracy in America: Historical-Critical Edition of De la démocratie en Amérique, vol. IV, (translated into English by James T. Schleifer, ed. Eduardo Nolla; Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.).
49. ______ (2010d). Democracy in America: Historical-Critical Edition of De la démocratie en Amérique, vol. III, (translated into English by James T. Schleifer, ed. Eduardo Nolla; Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.).
50. ______ (2010e). "Tocqueville to his Father, June 3, 1831," in idem, Letters from America (edited and translated by Frederick Brown; New Haven, Conn. & London: Yale University Press), 51-55.
51. Weber, Max (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (eds. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich; Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press).