A great part of historical research has been remiss in studying the role of the emotions in the construction of political and social activity, a type of study that is often opposed under the accusation of producing psychological determinisms. Various trends in political history made of the emotions a strange object in their discussions, by choosing the exclusive study of the cognitive aspects of politics and by presupposing that subjects are fully conscious and rational, guided only by the impulse of satisfying their interests or through faithfulness to their ideas. And yet, new historiographical perspectives point to the possibility of joining the symbolic and affective dimensions to the study of politics. Aligning itself with the project of a social history of the political emotions, this essay evaluates these new procedures, concentrating on the approach to the sentiments that have ruled political adhesion in the modern period, as well as the rhetorical and expressive repertories associated with them. For this purpose, it begins with the examination of the expression of emotions and their uses present in the texts of a thinker who is both an actor and astute observer of the political scenario of his time: Tocqueville. Fusing analytical thought with his own experience, Tocqueville did not limit his vision of politics to the rational management of interests, arguing that that took place in the interaction among three elements: passions, interests, and social norms, an idea that bases his hypothesis on the existence of a dynamic correlation between each political regime (democracy, in particular) and the passions.
History; Polical History; Sentiments