On The Good Balance Between The Interest Organizations In The Dahl's Pluralistic Democratic System

The pluralistic democracy is an extremely important part of theory of Contemporary Western Democracy and it described western democratic phenomenon since the 1970s (especially the United States democratic politics), in which the most representative pluralistic democracy is Robert A. Dahl's theory.In this thesis I investigate the formation and development of the pluralistic democracy to find the problems presenting in the democratic system, while they haven't been discussed by Dahl in his theory and then I try to explain these issues by the theory of the new political economy.In the 1970s it is the rise of interest groups that is one important base of Dahl's democracy in reality. That economic competition in the market and the deeper intervention of state in economy lead to the formation of interest groups. Interest groups polymerize and express the specific interests of citizens and they obtain legally the benefits for members of the group by political means. The rise of interest groups led to the formation of a pluralist society. The citizen, the media and the interest groups in a pluralistic society get into the checks-and-balances situation with nation. It is an important feature of contemporary democracy that the checks–and- balances situation appear in the nation. The pluralist democracy comes from four theoretical areas:First, the behaviorism scholars provide the scientific method of empirical researches on democracy and it keeps more pluralistic democracy in line with reality. The second is the elite democratic theory, which is the target of criticism and beyond by pluralistic democracy, however, the definition and the views of the democracy in the theory of pluralist democracy come from the democratic elite. Third, the theory of personality groups provides a new perspective on democracy researches; the role of interest groups have been discovered in the democratic process comes from the fact that the theory of personality social groups emphasized the importance of social groups. Fourth, the political economics theory. The theory of Lindblom, C.E. and Offe, C. promoted the transition from classical to new pluralistic democracy theory.Basic elements of Dahl's pluralistic democracy include a pluralistic society, pluralistic democracy and conditions for the realization of the pluralistic democracy. The pluralistic society is the very social status in which the government tolerates various relatively independent self-government organizations. In this pluralistic society there are multiple interests, multiple views and the multiple power. The pluralist society is the basis of pluralistic democracy. The pluralist democracy is the decision-making process, in which many independent autonomous organizations participate in decision-making process and share decision-making opportunities through bargaining and compromising. In this process organizations separate public power from government, as well as restraining public power. The conditions for the realization of the pluralistic democracy are the conditions in the historical, economic system, equality, etc. The transition form an authoritarian to the pluralistic democracy needs the conditions. Dahl investigated the conditions and pointed out that in modern society these changes in the conditions of to promote the development of pluralistic democracy.The plight of pluralistic democracy is the dual nature of autonomy multiple organizations, that is, autonomy of the Group is necessary conditions for democracy, while it is a threat for democracy. The threat has several major areas: curing political inequality, distorting civic awareness, distorting public agenda and transferring the ultimate control. In his amendment, Dahl replaces the classical pluralistic democracy with economic democratic theory. In new theory the civilian should actively participate in democratic politics in economic organizations and the government should restrain the power of society by public power to avoid the excessive expansion.Two issues were triggered by the plight in pluralist democracy theory: the marginalization of citizens and the imbalance between interest groups. The marginalization of citizens in theory is the inevitable consequence because Dahl places too much emphasis on the role of multiple organizations in his classic theory. As individual citizen is weak in the political process and in the distribution of power and interests he is vulnerable. The new economic democratic theory is the best response on the issue. For the imbalance of interest groups, Dahl isn't aware of its serious consequences. The British political scientist Antonio ? Abailashite in"democracy"mentioned that the threat in the greatest of contemporary democracy from huge multinational corporations and other social organizations. They cannot only elevate overhead the public power; they may also use its advantages in resources to pose a threat to other groups.How to avoid such interest groups imbalance through using of existing resources? In a multicultural democratic society which factors control the imbalance between the interest groups to avoid the social forces conflicts? The political economic scholars provide some solutions to these problems in new ideas. It believes that there are four major factors on the balance between multiple organizations to have an impact: First, the role of the market. The market shapes the beliefs of equality and freedom and market competition provides upward opportunity and promotes the diversification of organizations. Second is the government regulation. Government narrows gap between the rich and the poor by transferring payments, molds the middle class, stabilizes social structure and makes organizational activities be consistent with the rules. Third, it is personal rational conducts that restrain expansion of the Group. Individuals'rational reason cannot necessarily promote the collective one. The driving force for the pursuit of personal maximal interests will reduce. Because the scale of organization is too large, small-scale organizations become personal rational choice. Fourth, the group's activities load to imbalance between organizations. Interest groups affect decision-making and implementation by activities outside the hospital and the way that interest organizations gain their interest is indirect. This way promotes competition and joint among Groups.The pluralist democracy promotes the development of the Western democracies, and it can resolve the existing problems in former democracy theory. But its own problem is inherent weakness in the competitive democracy theory, so it provides the space for the emergence of the deliberative democracy.