Abstract

This thesis aims to further expand on the intellectual influence of Tocqueville in the Calgary School’s work. It is aimed at trying to better understand the Calgary School and Alexis de Tocqueville. This thesis tries to address a lack of literature on the Calgary School, there is a lack of literature on them and oftentimes they are dismissed out of hand by left-leaning scholars and critics. This project is not an apology for the Calgary School merely to better understand their ideas and the influences behind them. To accomplish this goal three different themes are used that correspond to the first three chapters of this thesis. The overall common thread or unifying theme used to tie Tocqueville and the Calgary is a critique of the trajectory of liberal democracy, that while critical still supports the basic tenets of liberal democracy. This leads to an understanding that is more subtle, and more generous reading of neoconservative thought in Canada. Categorizations such as neoconservative can in fact be misleading and misrepresentative of the actual thought and ideas of the authors at hand. There are firm philosophical underpinnings to the thought of the Calgary School. Neoconservatism can be perspective that is both sensitive to the values of liberal democracy and critical of the problems inherent with it. While not without its issues, neoconservatism deserves to have its influences more thoroughly investigated.