Pluralism, Democracy and Political Knowledge: Robert A. Dahl and his Critics on Modern Politics

560 Pages·2011·2.95 MB·English

by  Hans Blokland

PLURALISM, DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE
For Jonah, Kim and Samuel
The translation of this book was made possible by a publication grant from the
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Translated by Nancy
Smyth van Weesep
Pluralism, Democracy and Political
Knowledge
Robert A. Dahl and his Critics on Modern Politics
HANS BLOKLAND
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright © Hans Blokland 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Hans Blokland has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Blokland, Hans Theodorus.
Pluralism, democracy and political knowledge : Robert A. Dahl and his critics
on modern politics.
1. Democracy. 2. Cultural pluralism. 3. Political participation. 4. Political
science--History--20th century. 5. Dahl, Robert Alan, 1915-
I. Title
321.8-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blokland, Hans Theodorus.
Pluralism, democracy and political knowledge : Robert A Dahl and his critics
on modern politics / by Hans Blokland.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-2931-9 (hbk)
1. Democracy--Philosophy. 2. Cultural pluralism--Political aspects. 3. Political
science--History--20th century. 4. Democracy--United States. 5. Dahl, Robert
Alan, 1915- I. Title.
JC423.B592 2011
321.8--dc22
2011013144
ISBN 9781409429319 (hbk)
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
1 The Three Theoretical Levels or Discourses of this Book
2 Structure of the Argument
2 An American Preamble
1 Personal Background: The Absence of Decisive Sources of Inspiration
2 Some Observations on the Historical Context
2.1 The Great Depression and the New Deal
2.2 The Keynesian paradigm
2.3 The postwar reassessment of market and politics
2.4 Inventing a better society
3 Political and Philosophical Background
3.1 The overarching liberal political context
3.2 Ethical pluralism and liberalism
3.3 Pragmatism as attitude toward life
4 Pluralistic Antecedents
4.1 The traditionally strong role of civil organizations in America
4.2 Statism in nineteenth-century political scholarship
4.3 The pluralist critique of statist thought in the interbellum
4.4 An unstable pedestal for Arthur F. Bentley
4.5 Earl Latham on the relentless power struggle between groups
4.6 David B. Truman
5 Concerns about Electoral Political Incompetence
5.1 The psychological discourse in the interbellum
5.2 Political science requires a new theory of democracy
5.3 Deweyism as democratic theory
5.4 Postwar empirical investigations of electoral competence
5.5 Bernard Berelson on benevolent political indifference
6 Conclusion
3 Foreign Policy and Political Competence
1 Citizens, Congress, and Foreign Affairs
1.1 Three criteria for democratic decision making
1.2 Influences on and limitations of the elected representative
1.3 Three methods to improve current decision making
1.4 Why the choice of means cannot be left up to the experts
1.5 Fostering political competence
1.6 Desired reforms of the political system: Party government
1.7 Influences on Congress and Foreign Policy
2 The Elected Dictator and Iraq
2.1 Concentration of power and complacency
2.2 The rationality of the democratic decision making on Iraq
3 Electoral Competence and the Emancipation Dilemma
4 A Common Point of Departure
1 Appropriate Social Techniques and the End of Ideology
2 Seven Broadly Endorsed Goals of Rational Social Action
3 Calculation and Control as Prerequisites for Rational Social Action
3.1 Processes of calculation: Science, incrementalism, calculated risk,
utopianism
3.2 Four techniques of control
4 The Price System
4.1 How businessmen are controlled through the market mechanism
4.2 The market and socialism can coexist
5 The Hierarchical Order
5.1 Bureaucracy and the causes of and reasons for its expansion
5.2 The inevitable costs of indispensable bureaucracies
5.3 The primacy of politics and decentralization as counterweights
6 Polyarchy
6.1 Polyarchy as solution to the basic problem of politics
6.2 The social preconditions for the existence of a polyarchy
7 Bargaining
7.1 The negative consequences for political rationality and responsiveness
7.2 “Party Government” to combat the negative aspects of bargaining
8 Hierarchical and Polyarchical Versus Price System Techniques
8.1 Some technical shortcomings of polyarchy and hierarchy
8.2 Some shortcomings of the price system
8.3 Efficiency and innovative potential of public and private organizations
9 Bargaining Versus the Price System
9.1 Co-management and the illegitimacy of private enterprise
9.2 A prelude to the neocorporatism debate: National bargaining
10 Improved Social Techniques to Realize the Enlightenment Project
10.1 The end of classical liberalism and socialism
10.2 The planning of personalities
11 Interim Balance
11.1 Interdisciplinarity, scientific progress, and naiveté
11.2 The reception of Politics, Economics, and Welfare
11.3 The endless “end of ideology” movement
11.4 Modernization and the end of Big Politics
11.5 The spirit of the time by Weber, Mannheim, and Schumpeter
5 The Behavioralist Mood
1 The Breeding Ground of Behavioralism
1.1 Bentley, Wallas, and Merriam
1.2 German refugees, social irrelevance, the survey, and the Social Science
Research Council
1.3 The influence of Popper’s epistemological notions
2 The State and the Future of Political Science According to David Easton
2.1 Facts, trivia, and little laws
2.2 The necessity of theories
2.3 Can political scholarship become a science?
2.4 The unfulfilled function of normative political theory
2.5 The potential of the equilibrium theory prevailing in political science
3 Dahl’s Critique of the Old and New Science of Politics
4 Lindblom’s Praise of Current Political-Scientific Knowledge
5 An Epitaph for a Successful Protest
5.1 An austere description of behavioralism
5.2 The achievements of behavioralism
5.3 Putting the fragments of political science back together again
6 Some Preliminary Observations on Behavioralism