Jan 13 2011
Week 2 Reading: Classical Thinking on Democracy
In his book A Preface to Democratic Theory, Robert A. Dahl theorizes about a polyarchal democracy. He begins by challenging the Madisonian and populist models of democracy by suggesting two methods that could be used to construct a new theory of democracy. The method of maximization specifies a goal (such as political equality) to be maximized and that democracy can then be defined by which political processes are needed to maximize this goal. The descriptive method is to examine the characteristics of the members of “democratic” political and social organizations and consider the conditions needed for these to exist.
From the populist theory, Dahl deduces three characteristics that could be used to describe democracy: 1) the policy that is most preferred by members will be selected, 2) each member has an equal vote and 3) the option with the most votes wins. Dahl, then develops 8 conditions that could aid in achieving these characteristics but admits that no organization could attain these limits in the real world therefore he interprets them as measurements that could be used to determine how democratic organizations are and “the upper chunk might be called “polyarchies”” (p. 74).
Next, Dahl reinterprets the conditions into norms or rules. I found one particularly interesting:
“Polyarchy is a function of the political activity of the members ” (p.81)
Dahl suggests that variables like income, socioeconomic status and educations are positively correlated with peoples’ political activity and the uneducated masses Madison feared were not an obstacle to democracy. Dahl argues that these people are less inclined due to social obstructions to participate in the political process unlike the wealthy and affluent members of society.