Civil Society and Renewing of the Democratic Heart

Tocqueville's account of civil society is one of his best known contributions to politics and sociology, but it is surprisingly perhaps rather superficially understood as simply a matter of joining and doing. One key to understanding its deeper significance lies in his quiet but bold claim that the "sentiments and ideas renew themselves, the human heart grows larger, and the human mind expands by the reciprocal action of men on one another." This talk will unpack this and encourage us to think about civil society from the perspectives of social ontology (what is an association or society? What does it do and why does that matter?), of character formation (what kind of person does my act of participation make me?), and finally of political culture.