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1st Edition

Culture, Secularization, and Democracy Lessons from Alexis de Tocqueville

Edited By Sophie van Bijsterveld, Hans-Martien ten Napel Copyright 2025

180 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

180 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

180 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

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Description

Following the approach developed by Alexis de Tocqueville, this volume views democracy as a cultural phenomenon. It starts from the assumption that if we are to adequately address concerns about the current state and future of modern Western democracies, we need first to tackle the cultural preconditions necessary for the functioning of a democracy. Since Tocqueville’s time, the book takes the... Read more

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: A New Political Science

Sophie van Bijsterveld and Hans-Martien ten Napel

2. Secular Democracy and the Public Significance of Religion

Sophie van Bijsterveld

3. Family Tensions in Tocqueville and Lasch: Two Perspectives on the Domestic Sphere and Democratic Life

Sarah J. Wilford

4. Associational Life and Liberty: A Critical Assessment of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America

David Thunder

5. Conservatism, Enlightened Self Interest, and a Threatened Civilizational Order

John D. Wilsey

6. Building a Democratic Identity: Self-Interest and Moral Imagination

Stacey Hibbs

7. Why a Secularized and Pluralistic Democracy Needs Faith

Jonathan Chaplin

8. Freedom and Human Rights Trey Dimsdale 9. Truth, Unity, and Pluralism

Hans-Martien ten Napel

10. Tocqueville’s Legal Spirit as a Force of Hope for Presentist Democracy

Carinne Elion-Valter

Editor(s)

Biography

Sophie van Bijsterveld is Professor of Religion, Law, and Society at Radboud University, the Netherlands.

Hans-Martien ten Napel is Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

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