Multi-party system: Participation and opposition

Author: [US] Dahl
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: In today's world, studying political systems, especially democratic ones, and Dahl is a prominent name. This book is his masterpiece. In Chapter, Dahl clearly states that open debate (liberalization of the regime) and participation (inclusiveness of the regime) are two fundamental dimensions of democratization, and thus defines four extreme forms of regimes: closed authoritarian regime (low liberalization, low inclusiveness), inclusive authoritarian regime (low liberalization, high inclusiveness), competitive oligarchy (high liberalization, low inclusiveness), and polyarchy (high liberalization, high inclusiveness) — most countries in the world today actually fall into the ambiguous zone between these four forms. Dahl uses such clean and elegant terminology to replace the already vague concepts of "democracy," "authoritarianism," and so on, greatly enhancing the rigor of his argument. Dahl believes that most readers would agree that polyarchy is more desirable than other forms of regimes. The problem is that only when both the government and the opposition can achieve high mutual security can a path be paved towards polyarchy. Such a system of mutual security is more likely to develop among a smaller number of elites with relatively close ideologies (e.g., Britain); whereas under universal suffrage and mass politics, designing such a system of mutual security is very difficult. This is very likely to lead to a regrettable consequence in political change, leaving behind a large group of citizens who are divided and oppose the legitimacy of competitive politics — a situation that is not uncommon in the world today. Dahl believes: "Pre-industrial rural agricultural societies were certainly not naturally unsuitable for competitive politics or even polyarchy. Because some pre-industrial rural agricultural societies have had competitive political systems — sometimes even surprisingly providing the foundation for inclusive polyarchy." He points out that developed economies play a significant role in promoting pluralistic social orders and polyarchy, but polyarchy is also particularly vulnerable to extreme inequalities. In a society that has already implemented an open debate system, extreme inequalities increase the likelihood that competitive politics will be replaced by authoritarian politics. However, Dahl spends the most ink on Chapter 8 of this book: "Beliefs of Political Activists." In his view, "Just as any theory attempting to explain the changes in different national regimes must treat factors such as a country's level of socio-economic development, the nature and extent of inequality, and the degree of subcultural division as major independent variables, such a theory must also — realistically — regard the beliefs of political activists and 'ideas' as major independent variables."