Multi-party system (Participation and Opposition)

Author: [USA] Dahl
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: In today's world, when studying political systems, especially democratic ones, Dahl is a prominent name. This book is his masterpiece. In the chapter, Dahl explicitly states that open debate (liberalization of the regime) and participation (inclusiveness of the regime) are two fundamental dimensions of democratization, and from this, he 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 a vague region between these four forms. Dahl replaces the already vaguely defined concepts of "democracy," "authoritarianism," and others with such neat and elegant terminology, 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 toward polyarchy. Such a system of mutual security is more likely to develop among a smaller group of elites with relatively similar ideologies (e.g., the United Kingdom); under conditions of universal suffrage and mass politics, designing such a system of mutual security is very difficult. This could very well lead to a regrettable consequence in political change, leaving behind a large group of citizens who are alienated and oppose the legitimacy of competitive politics — a situation not uncommon in the world today. Dahl argues: "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 astonishingly 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 inequality. In a society that has already implemented an open debate system, extreme inequality increases the likelihood that competitive politics will be replaced by authoritarian politics. However, Dahl spends the most ink on Chapter 8: "Beliefs of Political Activists." In his view, "Just as any theory attempting to explain changes in different countries' political systems must treat factors such as a country's level of socioeconomic development, the nature and extent of inequality, and the degree of subcultural fragmentation as major independent variables, such a theory must also — realistically — regard the beliefs of political activists and 'ideas' as major independent variables."