Tocqueville, Covenant, and the Democratic Revolution: Harmonizing
Earth with Heaven. By Barbara Allen. Lanham, MD: Rowman and
Littlefield, 2005. 400p. $80.00 cloth, $25.95 paper.
This book is a remarkably original effort to develop a fresh
understanding and appreciation of Tocqueville's “new science of
politics.” The covenant or “federal” theology of the New
England Puritans is Barbara Allen's point of departure, and she
strongly reminds readers that it also served as the point of departure for
Tocqueville's analysis of America, in particular, and of democratic
society, in general. Allen argues that Tocqueville's new political
science is essentially a prescription for a democratic society in which
political culture reflects the beliefs, values, and behaviors of
covenantal religion. Her thesis is that Tocqueville's vision of a
healthy democratic society is fundamentally a portrait of a society
grounded in the Protestant covenant tradition.