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Alexis de Tocqueville, pandemic virtue and selfishness, and American democracy in decline

Tulis, Jeffrey (2021) Alexis de Tocqueville, pandemic virtue and selfishness, and American democracy in decline. USApp – American Politics and Policy Blog (03 Jun 2021). Blog Entry.

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Abstract

The 19th century French political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed that in America, motivation almost universally came from self-interest understood in a new way, rather than from virtue, which was often the case in European aristocracies. Jeffrey K. Tulis writes that the COVID-19 pandemic has seen deviations from this tendency, with a rise in both brute selfish and virtuous behavior. He attributes this mutation of American “self-interest rightly understood” to the decay of democracy, and the rise of white supremacy and anti-democratic sentiments.

Item Type: Online resource (Blog Entry)
Official URL: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/
Additional Information: © 2021 The Author(s)
Divisions: LSE
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
J Political Science > JK Political institutions (United States)
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Date Deposited: 13 Aug 2021 14:36
Last Modified: 14 Sep 2024 03:06
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111232

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