| Theory of pluralist democracy is an originality extremely convincingdemocratic theory. Theory of pluralist democracy is based on empirical researchfoundation, it originates in the political practice, is a rigorous scientific theory.Although it comes directly from America’s political practice, but it is not limitedto special practice of he United States. So it has great significance to democracyconstruction of the majority of the countries of the third world.Dahl, as pluralismmain interpreter, undoubtedly can show the panorama of theory of pluralistdemocracy. This paper focuses on the analysis of Dahl’s construction of theory ofpluralist democracy as well as late changes in his thoughts, and its evaluation.Part Ⅰdescribes Dahl’s criticism of traditional democratic theory. Dahlaimed to create a scientific theory on democracy process in the real world. For thereconstruction of democratic theory, Dahl thoroughly criticize past democratictheory. He selected two most representative democratic theory which have of thelargest influence: First, Madison’s democracy; second, populist democracy. Dahlthink Madison democratic theory came into being in the political debate, with astrong political compromises color, and certain core concepts of the theory werebuilt on the notions of natural law which was generally recognized, and thereforelack of precise definition. populist democratic theory is only a system of logicalrelationships between a number of ethical defaults but not an experience one. As ar e s u l t, e a c h o f t h e m i s n e i t h e r r i g o r o u s s c i e n t i f i c t h e o r y.In second part, I discuss the construction of Dahl’s pluralist democracy. Dahldistinguishes between two dimensions of democracy. First, distinguish betweenthe actual democracy and the ideal democracy. the word "democracy" is used toexpress the ideal democracy, but the word "polyarchy" to express the actualdemocracy. Dahl focus on how democracy is running. Second, distinction of theprocedural democracy and substantive democracy. For Dahl democracy must beprocedural, The diversity of power constitute the theoretical cornerstone of the Dahl’s pluralist democracy. Dahl descript power as a "relationship". In thisrelationship, A has a capacity to take action to control the reaction of B. Dahlresearch the distribution of powers in the New Haven City with empirical methods,and concluded that the power of the New Haven City is arrangednon-hierarchically and competitively, which means the powers have beendiversified. Dahl criticized a view of seeing rule of the Majority as the essentialcharacteristics of democracy. Through the research of elective process, he foundthat for several characteristics of a modern industrial society, the results ofelection can only reflect first preference of the majority to a candidate, but can notreflect prior preference of most citizens to a particular policy. So, the substance ofdemocracy is rule of the multi-minority but not rule of the majority.Thedemocratic system have been maintained by relying on social conditions. Thesocial conditions have three aspects: First, the relative autonomy of socialorganization; market economic system; social consensus.Polyarchy is the systemof pluralist democracy. Dahl proposed five criterion of the ideal democracy. Sevenoperational systems are established. Polyarchy contains all seven systems.Part Ⅲ analyzes the dilemma of the pluralist theory and the solution. Dahlbegan to reflect his own theory in the1980s. There is a serious predicament inpluralist democracy. The only solution to the dilemma of the prescription iseconomic democracy, that is, democratic procedure should be applied intogoverning of corporation. First, Dahl rebuilt the relationship between the freedomand the equality. Second, Dahl believes that although the property is veryimportant, but when the property rights conflict with autonomy, autonomy shouldtake precedence over property rights. As a result, the existing enterprise privateownership and controlling system lack of theoretical basis. Economic democracyis significant to pluralist democracy, namely, promoting political equality; changecivic awareness; strengthen the ultimate control of the citizens.The last part assesses pluralist theory. Dahl’s pluralist democracy theorymade a huge contribution to history. In theory, Dahl created a new form ofdemocratic theory which had greatly enriched the connotation of democracy. Dahlbroke through the limitations of traditional monistic democracy which oftenregards Government as the only owner of political power, and concerns on therelationship between individual citizens and the government. By contrary, pluralist democracy Dahl founded took organizations and individuals whoever own acertain political resources as owner of power, and its the main focus is therelationship between organizations. Dahl’s the idea of social checks and balanceshas promoted significant development of democratic ideas. From using right torestrict power to using power to restrain power, to the social constraints of power,democratic thinking has undergone a process of deepening. From a practical pointof view, Dahl’s pluralist democracy theory, to some extent, bridged the riftbetween the democratic ideal and the reality, so as to alleviate the crisis ofdemocratic beliefs in Western society. Many scholars have criticized Dahl’sdemocratic theory. First is the criticism on the concept of power. Second iscriticism on the concept of state. Third is the criticism of economic democracy. |
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