Political parties in Alexis de Tocqueville’s ideas

Abstract

Considering what has been called the crisis of modern democracy, the current work offers an analysis from the perspective of Alexis de Tocqueville, about the role and importance of political parties in modern democracy. This crisis can be observed in the discredit of the political sphere, which has translated into new populisms, lack of trust in institutions, rise of popular movements and rejection of political parties. It will be argued that, from a Tocquevillian perspective, political parties play a fundamental role for the health of representative democracy. Political Parties answer to the necessity of political pluralism, decentralization of power and the exercise of political freedom. The former are the main mechanisms to contain the despotic tendency inspired in the egalitarian fundament of democracy. Political parties can communicate, make coherent and stimulate the political participation of citizens in a pluralistic and dynamic way. First the issue about democratic crisis will be presented, then, the main ideas of Tocqueville that serve to analyze the function of political parties will be synthesized, to finish with the application of those ideas to the role of political parties and the conclusions drawn from there.