Can the Great Books Serve the Common Good? Tocqueville on Aristocratic Education in a Democratic Age

This article engages two established modes of analyzing Tocqueville’s theory in Democracy in America—the institutionalism of Volume 1 and the “art of association” of Volume 2—to argue for the importance of a Platonic theme in Tocqueville, that of education for leadership. After establishing why Tocqueville argues that democracy struggles to cultivate quality leadership, the article turns to examining one proposed solution: education in the classical humanities. Tocqueville’s argument for this pedagogy is overtly aristocratic, in contrast to many contemporary arguments for liberal education. Following this logic carefully permits us to understand another aspect of Tocqueville’s characteristic effort to incorporate aristocratic elements into democratic society and challenges us to reconsider our own role as educators.