How can citizens of a political society be united? What makes them willing to sacrifice for the good of the community? How are they made to obey the laws? The ancient world approached these questions through concepts such as virtue and honor. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America also attempted to answer these questions in relation to newly emergent democratic societies. However, he developed new concepts to formulate his answers, including enlightened self-interest, individualism, and free associations. Essential to his argument is the role of changing social conditions. For Tocqueville, the forces which have shaped the modern world, such as democracy, have made the ancient concepts irrelevant. Indeed, the changes which he had witnessed were so revolutionary that he was compelled to say, “I am tempted to burn my books so as to apply only new ideas to a social state so new” (I.2.9, 289). It thus becomes necessary to conceive of new ways of organizing cohesive political societies. This thesis builds on Tocqueville’s theories and observations to explain how changing social conditions can shape the citizen’s ability to cooperate as part of a cohesive polity and how modern societies can promote harmony among its citizens. I first explore briefly how the ancient world inspired citizens to work cohesively and how modern changes in ideas, sentiments, and mores have challenged the efficacy of premodern traditions. I then analyze how modern conditions can limit attempts at political cohesion and the challenges of promoting acts of solidarity among modern citizens. I also consider how democratic despotism offers a vague form of political cohesion that conforms to modern conditions, but in ways that undermine good governance. Finally, I argue that Tocqueville’s theory of enlightened self-interest, bolstered by a religious spirit that combats materialism, offers the most coherent account of how modern political societies can be united justly and how citizens can act harmoniously toward a common good. While enlightened self-interest and religion may be goods within themselves, this thesis suggests that these principles are also necessary for creating cohesion in the modern age.

This paper applies six components of Tocqueville's lens to Imperial Germany in an effort to demonstrate how from a contemporary's perspective the Kaiserreich can be understood to have deviated from what was conceived at the time as the standard path to political, economic, and social modernity, and that these deviations give a justification for the original positive understanding of a German Sonderweg that balanced the excesses of both Western Liberalism and Eastern Reactionarism whilst using the best.

Does school participatory budgeting (SPB) increase students’ political efficacy? SPB, which is implemented in thousands of schools around the world, is a democratic process of deliberation and decision-making in which students determine how to spend a portion of the school’s budget. We examined the impact of SPB on political efficacy in one middle school in Arizona. Our participants’ (n = 28) responses on survey items designed to measure self-perceived growth in political efficacy indicated a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.46), suggesting that SPB is an effective approach to civic pedagogy, with promising prospects for developing students’ political efficacy.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are diseases that still pose a threat to all parts of the world, particularly in less economically developed regions. However, it continues to be a problem in many high-income countries. The epidemiological picture in Spain offers an interesting case study for analysis to answer whether local interventions to confront HIV transmission, morbidity, and mortality are more effective than solely national or international efforts to reduce the effects of the disease. In this thesis, I rely on qualitative data in the form of key informant interviews and field notes collected in Barcelona, Spain, to demonstrate the significant role that grassroots organizations play in combating HIV in the Spanish context. CheckPoint Barcelona and ACATHI are two organizations in Barcelona, Spain that seek to improve such outcomes by directly providing support for communities at risk of poor outcomes after a late diagnosis of HIV and of contracting HIV in general. I find that local, non-governmental organizations are the driving force in combating HIV in Spain through three approaches: biomedical interventions, education and prevention initiatives, and social support for affected communities. Collectively, these findings suggest that non-governmental organizations, like ACATHI and CheckPoint should be supported to continue achieving desired HIV objectives.