This article analyzes the formation of modern conception of democracy in the 19th century and the relationship that this conception has to the emergence of a new paradigm of individualism that I call "romantic individualism". My thesis is that these are two mutually shaping events, in other words, that the configuration of new institutions and a modern theory of democracy are intimately related to a new paradigm of individualism. The text begins by establishing the grounds within which we can work with the idea of a homogeneous theory of democracy or of romanticism, and then going on to research the conditions in which it becomes possible to speak of a specifically romantic individualism and of the way in which this notion is incorporated into the discourse of liberal democrats such as Stuart Mill, Tocqueville and Schumpeter.
individualism; subjectivity; democracy; romanticism; Enlightenment; freedom; reason; impulses; self-expression