After an ice storm prevented Yuval Levin from visiting Furman University, the Tocqueville Fellows carried the conversation forward.

In this special student panel episode of Tocqueville Talks, Director Brent Nelsen and co-host Elizabeth L’Arrivée are joined by Tocqueville Fellows Zach Lacombe and William Jepsen to discuss Levin’s book American Covenant and its central question: How can people act together when they don’t think alike?

Drawing on James Madison’s Notes on the Constitutional Convention and The Federalist Papers, the conversation explores whether the U.S. Constitution was designed merely to restrain power—or to create unity among a divided people.

The panel examines:

• The danger of “50% + 1” politics and limited majorities

• The Electoral College, filibuster, and constitutional guardrails

• Gen Z cynicism and distrust of institutions

• The crisis of input and output legitimacy

• Patriotism as unifying force—or partisan weapon

• Tocqueville’s warnings about majority tyranny and soft despotism

As students reflect on constitutional law courses, contemporary polarization, and the temptation toward efficiency over compromise, the episode becomes a candid exploration of whether Americans still trust the system—or even believe in constitutional republicanism at all.

Is the Constitution broken? Or are we simply refusing to use it as it was designed?

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, political economist Matthias Matthijs joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée to examine Europe’s strategic vulnerability following the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

The conversation introduces the idea of the “Trump trap”: Europe’s geopolitical weakness forces short-term concessions on trade, defense, and regulation that undermine democratic legitimacy and reward far-right challengers. Drawing on Alexis de Tocqueville’s analysis of centralized administration, the episode asks whether Europe’s growing bureaucratic power is cultivating self-government—or accelerating political dependence.

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, political scientist Gary Marks joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée for a deep exploration of the European Union as a living political experiment. Beginning with Jean Monnet and the post–World War II origins of European integration, the conversation examines why supranational governance emerged—and why it continues to evolve under intense internal and external pressures.

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, political scientist Liesbet Hooghe joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée to examine how modern politics is increasingly organized around cultural authority rather than economic ideology. The conversation explores why citizens feel ruled even when institutions claim to be decentralized—and how legitimacy changes when decision-making moves farther from daily life.

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, Dr. Ben Sasse joins Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivée for Part II of our series on The Crisis in American Higher Education. They discuss institutional fragility, mission drift, the collapse of meaningful learning, and what Tocqueville can teach us about the formation of citizens.

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, co-hosts Brent Nelsen and Elizabeth L’Arrivée welcome political philosopher and Heterodox Academy president John Tomasi for a conversation with Dr. L’Arrivée on the crisis facing American higher education, including free inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and the purpose of the modern university.

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, co-hosts Brent Nelsen and Elizabeth L’Arrivée welcome public theologian and Holy Post co-host Kaitlyn Schiess for a conversation with Dr. L’Arrivée on religion in pluralistic America, civic life, and the ongoing legacy of the American founding.

In this episode of Tocqueville Talks, co-hosts Brent Nelsen and Elizabeth L’Arrivée welcome Notre Dame historian Mark Noll for a conversation on how the Bible was used—and misused—in American political discourse during the Revolutionary War and the founding era.