By Robert A. Dahl
During this booklet, one of many world's such a lot extraordinary political scientists discusses the issues, strengths, and weaknesses of democracy as a style of choice making for contemporary governments. Robert A. Dahl examines the rules on which the authority of democratic govt rests, the query of who "the humans" can be within the suggestion of "rule by way of the people," and the types of democracy that healthy diversified occasions. In a brand new bankruptcy Dahl recognizes the significance of market-oriented economies to democratic associations yet advises newly democratic governments to undertake a process during which unregulated markets are changed via a specific amount of governmental intervention.
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Extra resources for After the Revolution?: Authority in a Good Society, Revised Edition
Sample text
I hope I have persuaded you that even if we ought not to be obsessed with time, a political theory must pay attention to time simply because it is valuable and scarce. Since the whole point of the operation was precisely to save time, to get the business of Athens done and not just talked about forever, they needed a chairman. Like other performers (including teachers, ministers, and actors), politicians and political activists are prone to overestimate the interest of the audience in their performance.
Page 45 Chapter Two— Varieties of Democratic Authority Although democracy may not be the only acceptable form of decision making, it is one of the most important, if only because (I have argued) it is the best form for that most powerful of associations, the state. " All this will grow clearer as we proceed. To break out of the circle, let me formulate the question this way: who should be entitled to participate in the government of a democratic association? Let me try to make clear what it is.
Before jumping to the accepted school solution, remember that Europe consists of people who have been constituted by divisions and separations. To advocate democracy would then mean, we suppose, that the citizens of Greece should govern Greece. Is there then no rational basis for deciding what should constitute a people for purposes of democratic rule? Page 48 Or, if you prefer, who is entitled to participate in a democratic association? The question still remains unanswered. If these questions can be asked about New York, they can be asked about any existing territorial entity whatsoever, including the United States.