Tocqueville on Crisis

Although Tocquevilles comments on economic crisis are hardly known, they constitute an important part of his thought because he treats this phenomenon as an inevitable factor of the economic, social, and political reality of a modern democratic society. This article examines the nature, reasons, and consequences of both short-term economic crises and permanent crises, which are essentially rooted in the deep principles of some socioeconomic systems. One of the crucial questions in this respect is how Tocqueville understands the laws that govern the economy. In the last section, the article focuses on the remedies that he proposes to mitigate the problem, including widespread private ownership, freedom, virtue, and the activity of the state with its proper limits.Marek Tracz-Triniecki, "Tocqueville on Crisis," Journal of Markets & Morality 15, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 65-8