The Alexis de Tocqueville Centre for Political and Legal Thought, founded in September 2007, is an integral research unit in the Department of Law and Administration, University of Lodz, Poland.

The Centre, named after the author of “Democracy in America”, recalls Tocquellean intellectual heritage. This heritage integrates current dominant traditions of conservatism and liberalism with the Christian vision of Western identity and the Republican ethos of citizens’ active involvement in social and political sphere. The political, statutory, and legal though is derived from analyses of specific social relations without constructing abstract, rationalized, a priori models of public life. Fundamental contemporary values, such as liberty, equality, democracy, the rule of law, efficiency of government, civic society and self-government, are perceived as far from being in mutual harmony. Thus, space is left for axiological skepticism, new ideas are inspired and generated, and cognitive objectivism is secured and necessitated.

In its activities, the Centre recognizes this heritage as important both for civic performance and research endeavors.