Reinterpreting Dahl’s Democratic Thought: An Alternative Perspective
Author: I-chung Chen
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
This paper offers an alternative perspective on Robert Dahl’s democratic thought as it has developed from the 1940s to the present. Section I reviews recent controversy over Dahl’s intellectual evolution. Section II examines the young Dahl’s arguments for a decentralized, democratic socialism. Section III reconsiders aspects of Dahl’s paradigm of “pluralist democracy” in the 1950s and 60s, especially in relation to Joseph A. Schumpeter’s theory of “competitive elitist democracy.” Section IV further explores Dahl’s critique of capitalism and political inequality from the 1970s onwards, and takes a close look at his program of “economic democracy.” The author argues: (1) the ideal of “decentralization of power and control” has been the basic thread running through all three distinct stages in Dahl’s intellectual evolution; (2) Dahl’s model of a decentralized and pluralist democracy has been developed since the 1950s with the quintessential help of Schumpeter; (3) contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Dahl’s socialistic program of “economic democracy” is intended rather as a way to realize the unfulfilled promise of a decentralized and pluralist democracy.