Tocqueville, representative of the dilemma of law and state

Each month, Le Regard Libre presents a philosopher whose thinking differs from, or even runs counter to, certain clichés circulating about him or her. In this episode, historian Olivier Meuwly looks at the 19th-century French liberal Alexis de Tocqueville. Although the writer is known as a great critic of egalitarianism and statism, the concepts of equality and the state nonetheless play a role in his political vision. In a certain sense, Tocqueville is even a defender of the State. This counter-intuitive idea can be explored through Tocqueville's relationship with the law.

Alexis de Tocqueville is rightly revered as one of the great thinkers on liberalism and its relationship with emerging democracy. After examining its infancy in the young United States of America