ISJ Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
From International Socialism, No.10, Autumn 1962, p.32.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City
Robert A Dahl
Yale University Press. 60s.
This is yet another American study concerned with ‘pluralism’, but given Dahl’s logical and factual mind (see his A Preface to Democratic Theory), one would expect new insights into the real distribution of power in American city politics. However, Dahl studied New Haven, Connecticut, when no policy decisions involving important controversy were happening, so his awareness of the relative weight of privileged groups in such decisions is limited. A study of power distribution in relatively placid times is bound to miss the extent to which powerful groups can use their power. This is especially important in a society such as the USA where the ruling strata are not usually very interested in partisan politics except where such politics impinge upon their own privileged interests. A better time to make a realistic study is, for example, when open occupancy laws aimed at eliminating racial discrimination in housing are debated, or when rent-control laws are proposed. The establishment of the urban redevelopment scheme which Dahl studied in New Haven did not, as he himself recognises, entail any economic loss to any significant section or number of city dwellers, rich or poor. However, for those who have little acquaintance with American urban politics, this will be a useful volume to read. Among other things, they will understand some of the national, ethnic and religious groups which have been the major obstacles to the creation of a politically conscious labour movement in America. A few incidental observations in the book are useful revelations of the nature and limitations of capitalist liberal democracy, e.g. ‘In liberal societies, politics is a sideshow in the great circus of life ... Government, in the sense used here, is only a fragment of social life’ (p.305). The author does not make much use of such observations – others who read his book will.
ISJ Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Last updated on 27.10.2006