The aim of this paper is to bring into the comtemporary discussion of crises of authority an ignored pre-Marxist approach best manifested in the writings of Thomas Carlyle and in the related ideas of Alexis de Tocqueville. Both stressed the importance of a nation's "collective unconscious" or value orientations in maintaining political legitimacy. If these erode, a "crisis in incubation" ensues, when authority is passively accepted until a major problem triggers a full-fledged crisis. The conjectural importance of this approach is indicated by brief comments on the possibility of a new type of crisis in the post-modem, post-industrial society.
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