“Who Governs?”
Robert Dahl
Who Governs?
Open, but Unequal System: Who Governs?
In a political system where virtually everyone can vote,
yet there is vast inequalities in knowledge, wealth,
social position, access to officials, who actually
governs? (95)
New Haven: Who Governs?
New Haven: Cumulative to Non-Cumulative Inequality
The city experienced a radical change in last two
centuries; changing from oligarchy to pluralism. (96)
In the process, there was a profound change in “the
way political resources are distributed among the
citizens of New Haven.”
New Haven: Who Governs?
Inequality did not disappear. But there was a shift from
cumulative inequality to non-cumulative or dispersed
inequality.
Cumulative Inequality: Those who are better off in one
resource, are more than likely better off in another,
such as social standing, legitimacy…knowledge…
New Haven: Who Governs?
Though New Haven is still unequal, it is not longer
“dominated by one cohesive set of leaders…” That
system has given away to one “dominated by many
different sets of leaders…each with different
resources. (96)
It is, in short, a pluralist system.
New Haven: Who Governs?
Pluralist New Haven: Still Not Clear Who Governs (96)
Neither elites, nor people rule now. Who rules then? It
is difficult to tell: it is complicated by the intricate
relationships between leaders and citizens. (96)
Not Clear Who is in Charge
According to some, leaders are in charge. But from
another perspective, constituents rule. Leaders are
certainly in a reciprocal relationship with citizens.
Different Political Stratums
Different Stratums: Political and Apolitical (97)
In every political system, there are those who are
highly active. They are the political stratum.
Comparing Political and Apolitical
For one, politics is highly salient, for the other it is
remote, for one, political choice is calculated and
informed, for the other it is more impulsive (or, more
influenced by habit, unexamined loyalties,
emotions…) (98)
Different Political Stratums
Political Stratum is not a Single, Uniform Group (99)
It is not a closed group, no are its members united in
their orientation and strategies. There are
cleavages… (99)
“A Preface to Democratic Theory”
People Can Get Themselves Heard (100)
They can get themselves heard by getting officials to
respond to them.
Nature of Govt Decision in Pluralist Democracy
Decision in Pluralist Democracy is “a majestic march of
great majorities united upon certain matters of basic
policy. It is the steady appeasement of the relatively
small groups…
It is a decentralized system, and it is not a static
system. (100-101)
The Nature of Power and Roots of Quiescence
This type of control may happen in absence of conflict,
which has been averted.
Theory of Power cannot focus on actually behavior: it
must consider also the way in which “potential”
conflicts or debates are avoided, or prevented from
ever occurring.