Heine et Tocqueville ou le désenchantement démocratique

Abstract

At first glance, Heine and Tocqueville seem to have little in common. The former was an exiled German-Jewish poet who had turned his back on his home country because he refused to be muzzled, and who did not seem destined to hold any established social position. The latter was a nobleman from Normandy who felt called to politics and was never too shy to throw himself into the electoral fray, although in the end he had to admit to himself that it was not his political actions but rather his theoretical works that would commend him to posterity. Nevertheless, both Heine and Tocqueville developed a conception of history which, even if it cannot quite be brought down to a common denominator, is remarkably close.