Project MUSE®: The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville.daily12026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 30 (2009) through current issueLatest Articles: The Tocqueville Review/La revue TocquevilleTWOProject MUSE®The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville1918-66490730-479XLatest articles in The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville. Feed provided by Project MUSE®In Tribute to Raymond Boudon: Introduction
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976771
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This Fall 2025 issue of The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville includes a special section dedicated to Raymond Boudon (1934–2013). There are many reasons for this tribute. First, Boudon consistently supported this journal, both institutionally (notably through the Institut de France, of which he was a member) and as a friend. He contributed to this journal, but more importantly, his work placed Tocqueville’s analyses at the forefront. Furthermore, Boudon drew on these analyses in his research, both methodologically and epistemologically, and made Tocqueville one of the key classical authors in sociology, on a par with Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel. In most of his books, Boudon incorporates at least one argument
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallIn Tribute to Raymond Boudon: Introduction2025-12-11text/htmlen-USIn Tribute to Raymond Boudon: Introduction2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®338782026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Autonomous Methodology: Raymond Boudon Reader of Tocqueville
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976772
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In addition to his many works on topics ranging from social mobility to values and moral reasoning, the French sociologist Raymond Boudon (1934–2013) was an innovative reader of Alexis de Tocqueville. While the philosopher Raymond Aron had recognized in Tocqueville a precursor of sociology within the political-philosophical tradition of passing judgment on regimes, Boudon saw Tocqueville as a forerunner of scientific sociology. Boudon was fond of saying he experienced “an intellectual shock” on first reading Tocqueville and then developed “a growing admiration” for him, expressed in essays he published over four decades and culminating with his 2005 book Tocqueville for Today.1 Boudon counted Tocqueville as one of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallAutonomous Methodology: Raymond Boudon Reader of Tocqueville2025-12-11text/htmlen-USAutonomous Methodology: Raymond Boudon Reader of Tocqueville2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®371282026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Sociology of Relativism According to Raymond Boudon
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976773
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“It is not consensus that creates truth, but truth that creates consensus.”Relativism raises major issues for scientific knowledge and for the planning of life in contemporary societies characterized by the diversity of populations and lifestyles. It casts doubts on scientific research and grounded knowledge, impeding the quest for truth. Similarly, it makes it difficult to assess what is good in terms of social norms, and what is beautiful in the artistic sphere, by fostering the idea that “anything goes.” Relativism also has important social and political implications, not least because it “encourages the loss of reference points and justifies the representation of social and political life as a matter of power
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallSociology of Relativism According to Raymond Boudon2025-12-11text/htmlen-USSociology of Relativism According to Raymond Boudon2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®897862026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Methodological Singularism in Raymond Boudon’s Sociology: Theoretical Foundation for the Realistic Elucidation of Social Phenomena
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976774
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Raymond Boudon’s (1934–2013) social theory is founded on principles he borrowed from whom he considered to be the most eminent and original thinkers of the social sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although Boudon stands as a key contemporary social theorist in his own right, he always considered himself as an intellectual heir, as someone who sought truth by using the strongest work of his predecessors as a critical starting point (Boudon [1971] 1980, pp. 81–82). He has hence been usefully described as a “classical” contemporary thinker (Bulle & Morin 2015). Indeed, his theory can be seen as an original adaptation, synthesis, and expansion of the most fruitful theoretical insights found in the work of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallMethodological Singularism in Raymond Boudon’s Sociology: Theoretical Foundation for the Realistic Elucidation of Social Phenomena2025-12-11text/htmlen-USMethodological Singularism in Raymond Boudon’s Sociology: Theoretical Foundation for the Realistic Elucidation of Social Phenomena2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®869122026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Erreur de raisonnement et expérience : la bonne intuition et le rendez-vous manqué de Raymond Boudon
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976775
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On peut défendre avec Jean-Michel Morin1 l’idée que Raymond Boudon est d’ores et déjà un « auteur classique » en ce sens que l’on ne prend pas beaucoup de risques à supposer qu’il sera durablement évoqué dans les manuels d’histoire des sciences sociales.Il le sera aussi bien parce qu’il a produit un certain nombre de livres importants, de concepts et de modélisations qui ont fait débat et qui ont, de ce fait, influencé le centre de gravité théorique et pratique de la sociologie, que parce qu’il a manifesté, tout au long de son œuvre, des intuitions fondamentales riches de développements potentiels. Sur certains sujets, il n’a fait qu’ouvrir des portes sans réellement en franchir le seuil, ce qui autorise chacun
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallErreur de raisonnement et expérience : la bonne intuition et le rendez-vous manqué de Raymond Boudon2025-12-11text/htmlen-USErreur de raisonnement et expérience : la bonne intuition et le rendez-vous manqué de Raymond Boudon2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®969632026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11L’objectivité pratique pour récuser le relativisme moral
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976776
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Chaque époque a ses idéologies favorites, et aujourd’hui le relativisme est l’une d’elles. Ce n’est certes pas une nouveauté, si on en fait remonter une de ses premières expressions au sophiste Protagoras [1], mais son extension actuelle n’a peut-être jamais été aussi large puisqu’il prévaut aussi bien dans les domaines cognitifs (notamment d’ailleurs dans les sciences sociales ; cf. Boudon, 2005c) que normatifs. Pour le contrer, Raymond Boudon n’a en tous cas pas ménagé sa peine. Au travers de quantité de livres (Boudon, 2005b ; 2008 ; Boudon et Clavelin, 1994) ou d’articles (y compris dans cette Revue, cf. Boudon, 1994) il a cherché à montrer toute « la misère du relativisme » (Boudon, 2006b). Qu’il se répande
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallL’objectivité pratique pour récuser le relativisme moral2025-12-11text/htmlen-USL’objectivité pratique pour récuser le relativisme moral2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®1223672026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Raymond Boudon, A Scientific and Classical Sociologist
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976777
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The publication of a book on the work and thought of Raymond Boudon in the Anthem Companion series (London) is to be welcomed, as he rightly deserves to be listed among the outstanding authors of contemporary sociology. Boudon conceived of sociology as a science, on a par with the other so-called exact sciences, but he also intended to work towards a general research program capable of providing a solid foundation for the analysis of a multitude of subjects ranging from education, social stratification and mobility, to ideologies and knowledge, values, opinions and democracy, as well as so many others that captured his attention over the course of his career. For this reason, he has undoubtedly become a classic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallRaymond Boudon, A Scientific and Classical Sociologist2025-12-11text/htmlen-USRaymond Boudon, A Scientific and Classical Sociologist2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®330472026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Reflections on the U.S. Presidential Election of 2024
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976778
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Between November 2023 and November 2024, at the invitation of The Tocqueville Society President Arthur Goldhammer, I wrote twenty-two columns for the Tocqueville 21 website, chronicling the US presidential election.1 Most of these columns also appeared, in French and Spanish translation, in the European web magazine Le Grand Continent.2 I also agreed to offer some more extended reflections, in these pages, after the election. With the shape of the second Trump administration having now all too clearly emerged, it seems like a good moment for this final assignment. In this essay, I will first hold myself to account for what I missed in my columns, and then reflect more closely on the campaign itself, and why it
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallReflections on the U.S. Presidential Election of 20242025-12-11text/htmlen-USReflections on the U.S. Presidential Election of 20242025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®403082026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Les Conversations Tocqueville: 7e édition, 27 et 28 juin 2025
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976779
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Le château de Tocqueville a accueilli, les 27 et 28 juin, les septièmes Conversations organisées par la Fondation Tocqueville et Laure Mandeville du Figaro, avec le soutien des collectivités territoriales (région Normandie, département de la Manche, agglomération du Cotentin), et de divers mécènes privés. L’événement a, comme les années précédentes, réuni des hommes d’État et des élus américains et européens, des dirigeants d’entreprise, des officiers, des personnalités du monde associatif et culturel et un large public de tout âge. Le cadre champêtre, loin du fracas du monde, était propice à des débats sans acrimonie sur une situation internationale qui inspire à tous, quels que soient leurs choix partisans
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallLes Conversations Tocqueville: 7e édition, 27 et 28 juin 20252025-12-11text/htmlen-USLes Conversations Tocqueville: 7e édition, 27 et 28 juin 20252025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®689542026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11Tocqueville on America, Custine on Russia: Two Rationales for the Cold War *
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976780
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The first volume of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835) and Astolphe de Custine’s Russia in 1839 (1843) were both best sellers when they came out in France. After returning from his trip to the United States, Tocqueville made the case for democracy. He took the reader by surprise on the last page of his book by contrasting liberty as “the American’s principal means of action” to Russian “servitude.”1 Custine then traveled to Russia to prove instead the merits of despotism, but he changed his mind when visiting the country and returned condemning the oppressive regime.It was not immediately apparent that Custine’s reversal from supporter of absolutism to partisan of constitutional government owed
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/445/image/coversmallTocqueville on America, Custine on Russia: Two Rationales for the Cold War *2025-12-11text/htmlen-USTocqueville on America, Custine on Russia: Two Rationales for the Cold War *2025-12-112025TWOProject MUSE®689632026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002025-12-11