The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy was founded in 2006 in order to advance a sympathetic knowledge of the United States of America and its roots in the Western philosophical and theological traditions. Housed within the Department of Government, it hosts an active public program of speakers, colloquia, roundtables, conferences, as well as informal events and activities oriented especially to undergraduate Student Fellows of the Program. The aim of the program is to cultivate both good citizenship and good character through intellectual discussion as well as the promotion of an aspiration to a life of virtue.