Tocqueville and Reflexivity

What is it about?

In this paper, I argue that contemporary debates about the nature of how people think and act can be informed by the work of Alexis de Tocqueville. Specifically, his claims about how selfhood and the decision-making process are shaped by an individual's surrounding economic system, style of governance, and system of mores and beliefs call for more focus on how one's thought processes and patterns of self-reflection are deeply shaped by their everyday worlds.

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Why is it important?

This paper calls for more consistency in explaining the decision-making process across social scientists which, I believe, have become divided into two campus: those who emphasize personal agency or capacity to engage in self-direction; and those who emphasize how decision-making is shaped by external forces and contingencies. Tocqueville's dedication to analyzing both of these factors in his study of early American democracy provides a template for a more balanced research program.