History of Political theories
- a. When Tocqueville visits America, he claims to have found there a solution to combining equality with
liberty without revolution despite the democratic revolution sweeping both Europe and America. Given the
variety of ways he discovers for the realization of political liberty in American civic and political life, in what
sense can he claim to have solved this problem? Why, however, does he fear that both his European and
his American audience might not heed his lesson? Does equality automatically lead to liberty as he
understands the term?
b. Based on your reading of The Communist Manifesto and the sections in Capital in which Marx describes
the working day and the structure of authority in the factory, how would he evaluate Tocqueville’s claim to
have found a solution to combining equality with liberty without revolution? Who has provided the most
coherent account of the relation of equality and liberty, or would you argue that the two accounts
supplement each other?
In writing this exam you must rely on our reading and support your arguments with direct textual evidence.
Essays without proper citations and without evidence taken directly from the text will receive a poor grade.
Warning: Summaries taken from the internet will lead to an automatic fail on the exam! In writing your
essays y