Abstract

This work aims to provide an overview of the comparison between Rousseau and Tocqueville. First, this essay proposes a reconstruction of the orientation of criticism and of the image of Rousseau in Tocqueville’s work. Then, the focus moves to the two authors’ deep analogies: the common anti-modern sensibility and the classical conception of ‘civism’ in the service of freedom. In the subsequent paragraphs, the works sheds light on differences (each one represents a starting point for further studies): the anthropological conception, the model of democracy, the relationships between freedom and equality, the image of dominion, the evaluation of property, the contrast between contractualism and naturalism, and the religion’s sphere.