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Alexis de Tocqueville

The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy, an initiative housed in the Department of Government at Georgetown University, seeks to advance the study of America’s founding principles and their roots in the Western philosophical and religious traditions. Named for

Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th-century French observer of America, the Forum endeavors to emulate Tocqueville’s sympathetic and penetrating exploration of the origins of and prospects for American constitutional democracy.  Sponsoring events such as conferences, lectures and colloquia on the campus of Georgetown University, the Tocqueville Forum hopes to deepen classical liberal learning and elevate the civic understanding of the students of Georgetown University and the next generation of citizens and leaders.

Mission

University Seal

The seal of Georgetown University encapsulates the vision of the Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy. The American eagle is the central focus of the seal, emphasizing that the origins and fate of Georgetown University are bound up with those of the United States of America, and that a central mission of the University is an emphasis upon a deeper understanding of the United States and the sources of America’s founding principles. The eagle clasps in one claw the globe emblazoned with calipers, and in the other a Christian cross. This image suggests that the two fundamental supports of American liberty lie in its roots in the rationalist political and philosophic tradition that began outside the United States – primarily in the Greek and European philosophic and scientific traditions – and, equally, in the Judeo-Christian Biblical tradition. Georgetown’s motto – utraque unum, or “both one” – points to America’s extraordinary success in integrating these two major streams of the Western tradition – philosophic and religious – in creating a strong and enduring republic. The date of the seal – 1789 – emphasizes the simultaneity of the creation of the university and the founding of the nation under the newly ratified Constitution.

The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy is conceived in order to highlight Georgetown University’s tradition of educating students about the founding principles of the United States and the two main roots of American democracy, Western political philosophy and the Biblical and Christian religious tradition. Located in the nation’s capital and founded in 1789 as the first Jesuit and Catholic University in America, Georgetown University has long understood its mission to be the moral formation and civic education of a generation of future citizens and leaders. The Tocqueville Forum is conceived as a focal point for activities central to this purpose.

The Tocqueville Forum seeks to sponsor and highlight activities on campus that will maintain a strong focus on the importance of American civic, philosophic, and religious self-understanding. The Forum will undertake activities that will be of benefit to undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty and interested members of the greater Washington D.C. community. It seeks to promote a true diversity of viewpoints about the sources of and prospects for American constitutional democracy, for the potential and promise of American democracy, and the challenges that have confronted and will continue to confront the United States, but equally seeks to ensure that such viewpoints will be animated by a sympathetic effort to understand and support the founding principles of the American republic.

For more information about the Tocqueville Forum and its mission, contact TocquevilleForum@georgetown.edu or Patrick J. Deneen, Director pjd35@georgetown.edu.