American political scientist (1915–2014)
He gave democracy its working vocabulary. Robert Dahl named "polyarchy" — the messy, interest-group scramble that passes for democratic governance in the real world — and spent fifty years mapping the gap between the ideal and what actually happens when people bargain for power.
Born December 17, 1915, Dahl landed at Yale and stayed, becoming Sterling Professor of Political Science. He founded pluralist theory, the idea that political outcomes emerge from competition among unequal interest groups rather than some unified public will. He introduced "polyarchy" to describe how democracies actually function, then pioneered empirical methods to study decision-making in real institutions — American city halls, councils, the ground floor of power. His behavioralist approach made him the central figure in pluralist scholarship. Alongside that descriptive work, he spent decad…
Sourced, dated quotes from Robert A. Dahl
One of the difficulties that confronts anyone who attempts to answer the question, "Who rules in a pluralist democracy?" is the ambiguous relationship of leaders to citizens.
People can be deceived by appeals intended to destroy democracy in the name of democracy.
The democratic process in governing a country is not necessarily enhanced by democratizing subsidiary parts of the process.
Even in a democratic country, it appears, nondemocratic forms of authority might sometimes be tolerable, perhaps actually desirable.
Democracy in the sense of political equality and majority rule is by no means the most desirable, that is, optimal solution for all kinds of associations.
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