POLSCI 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Robert A. Dahl, Elite Theory, Elife
17 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Organize the state in such a way that you produce the most political equality. Political equality: each person has a vote and each vote is worth the same. To equal 100 of the richest families, you need around a million of the median families: do we have meaningful political equality in modern liberal-democratic societies, can we have meaningful political equality in modern liberal-democratic societies. Elife rule is inevitable it, regardless of the type of political institutions in place. One class rules, the other class is ruled (you have power, many do not) Why is elite rule is inevitable: natural differences, it is the effect of structures. Robert michels: the iron law of oligarchy. Ina functioning democracy, interest groups (elite and non-elite) compete for access to political power. No one group has control over the political process (or over all parts of the legislative agenda) for very long. Is every member of society equally able to organize into an interest group.
