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:	11 Sep 2025 13:22
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111232

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