Tocqueville y el individualismo en las sociedades democráticas

Abstract

Resumen: Este artículo analiza la concepción de Alexis de Tocqueville sobre el “individualismo”, entendido como enfermedad social que afecta particularmente a las sociedades democráticas que, al disgregarse y perder sus vínculos políticos y civiles, contribuyen indirectamente el avance del centralismo burocrático. Asimismo, el artículo analiza los remedios que el propio Tocqueville proponía para poner freno a esa tendencia, sobre la base de su experiencia en suelo americano y la existencia allí de instituciones favorables a ese fin junto a una doctrina –la del “interés bien entendido”– interiorizada en el ciudadano medio.

Abstract: This article deals with Alexis de Tocqueville’s conception of “individualism”, regarded as a social malaise that is particularly harmful to democratic societies which, when becoming desintegrated by losing their political and civil bonds, are indirectly inclined towards the progress of bureaucratic centralism. Moreover, the article analizes the remedies which Tocqueville himself proposed in order to curb that tendency. They are based on his own American experience, where he came upon the existence of some institutions that serve that purpose, along with a doctrine –that of “interest well understood”– which is well internalized in the average citizen.