SOURCE: "Tocqueville's Passionate 'Beast': A Linguistic Analysis of the Concept of American Democracy." Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 9, No. 2, (1994): 113-33.

In this analysis of the metaphors Tocqueville used to describe American democracy, Kovecses disagrees with the majority of critics who believe Tocqueville regarded American democracy in a positive light.

In this article I argue that Tocqueville's view of democracy in Democracy in America (1835/1987) is in large measure given content and structure by the metaphor theme "DEMOCRACY IS A (PASSIONATE) PERSON." The analysis of Tocqueville's metaphors reveals that he saw American democracy as a highly defective system in which a dangerous social force needs to be controlled by other social forces. This result goes against the commonly held view that Tocqueville had a very positive opinion of American democracy. Issues that the "PERSON" metaphor allows us to examine include: What is the relation between the body politic and the "PERSON...