2 of 8
All the books considered here are exclusively concerned with these older democracies. Indeed they focus almost exclusively upon the United States (though Canada and western Europe get some comment). Dahl was one of the first political scientists to give this group of political societies an historically specific name of its own, polyarchy.[1] By that term he refers to the six political institutions which modern large-scale democracies require: election of public officials; free, fair, and frequent elections; freedom of expression; alternative sources of political information; associational autonomy; and an inclusive conception of citizenship. Dahl's brief book is an excellent starting point, for in it, like a contemporary Aristotle, he surveys the history of democracies, considers ideal and actual democracies, and examines those conditions favorable and unfavorable for democracy.
In his concluding chapter, "The Unfinished Journey," Dahl sounds the note that serves as the point of departure for the other works considered here. He looks to the future and is troubled: "We can predict with considerable confidence, I believe, that certain problems democratic countries now face will remain, and may even grow more daunting." Dahl points to the effects of the market economy upon political equality, the rise of internationalization (which locates decisions farther away from democratic control), the increasingly culturally diverse natures of democratic societies, and the lack of civic education, all of which combine to make the future of democracy "too uncertain to provide firm answers."
While democracy enjoys a resurgence around the globe, the older democracies have entered what appear to be "dark times," as Jeffrey Isaac has suggested. In deed, both the Gutmann and Thompson and the Macedo collections take as their starting point the apparently intractable nature of moral-political disagreement in democratic societies. As Gutmann and Thompson assert at the very beginning of their volume: "Of the challenges that American democracy faces to day, none is more formidable than the problem of moral disagreement." Benhabib also points to how "contemporary Western liberal democracies are being challenged by groups who insist upon their unassimilatable difference and who want to use their experience of alterity to demystify the rationalist and identitary illusions of these liberal democracies." Meanwhile, Bohman maintains that "the 'facts' of modern society, particularly its pluralism and complexity, seem to be strong prima facie obstacles" to democracy. And Isaac (as if his title doesn't communicate his concern clearly enough) reports that "there is a wide spread consensus among political analysts that liberal democracy in what used to be called 'the West' is in decline, that liberal democratic regimes have proved themselves ineffective and decreasingly legitimate in the eyes of their citizens." From the perspectives of some of our leading political theorists, then, democratic societies are riven by partisan political forces which threaten the dream of democratic unity. Can a democratic solution be found to solve this problem?
share this page
RSS Feed
