Resumo

POLLITZER, María. The role of passions in democratic societies: A dialogue between Rousseau and Tocqueville. Prismas [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.1. ISSN 1852-0499.

The problem of individualism and public disaffection has been denounced by many political thinkers as one of the greatest risks democratic societies must face. However, this is not a peril that only threats contemporary political culture. Three hundred years after Jean-Jacques Rousseau's birth it still reverberates among us one of the central claims that appears en his first Discourse: "We have no more citizens". Almost a century after, Alexis de Tocqueville -a genevan's avid reader- presented individualism and civic apathy as one of the main dangers that should tackle the new democracy. The aim of this article is not to present the diagnosis that both thinkers offered on this particular problem, but rather to examine the alternatives they envisioned in order to cope with it. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the role assigned to human passions in the attempt to redirect this trend, characteristic of modern man.

Palavras-chave : Tocqueville; Rousseau; Sympathy; Piety; Virtue; Pride.

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