Date of Award
Spring 2007
Project Type
Thesis
Program or Major
Political Science
Degree Name
Master of Arts
First Advisor
Warren R Brown
Abstract
The American family in Tocqueville's Democracy in America presents a novel association to humankind; at its heart are natural bonds between generations, spouses and siblings that offer, through public recognition, new opportunities for both individual and civic improvement. Through an exposition of Democracy's American family, this paper addresses how the association helps remediate the greatest dangers of the age of equality: a tyrannical majority, materialism, individualism and ultimately, democratic despotism. It finds that the chief virtue of the American family comes from the natural, complementary gender differences that define marriage in American public opinion; in particular, the social recognition that American wives receive supports a level of morality---and political success---that is singular to the Americans and integral to the maintenance of democracy, generally.
Recommended Citation
Noloboff, Nicholas R., "The family in Tocqueville's "Democracy in America": Understanding difference in the age of equality" (2007). Master's Theses and Capstones. 49.
https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis/49