Pluralism, Democracy and Political Knowledge: Robert A. Dahl and his Critics on Modern Politics

In western democracies, the political freedom of citizens to influence the development of their society and, related to this, their personal life is progressively decreasing. Our political systems seem less and less able to steer social changes and to formulate solutions to pressing social and political problems. Although pluralism has been strongly criticized within political science and has lost its dominant position within this discipline, many of the pluralist assumptions and doctrines have become generally accepted within everyday politics. Why don't people participate in or contribute to a civil society as well as they could, or should, in order to make democracy work?In this book, Hans T. Blokland examines the pluralist conception of politics and democracy, as formulated by, Robert A. Dahl and his critiques. In doing so he analyses the limits of the political system on which this notion of civil society is based, and links its limitations to differentiation, individualization and, most of all, rationalization.'Pluralism, Democracy and Political Knowledge' is a critique on the current debates on political participation and social capital. The shortcomings of our democracy cannot be discussed without fundamentally discussing the very structure of democracy as a project of modernity. As such it is an essential read which will provide a clear, important and original argument to all those struggling with how best to understand democracy in modernizing societies.