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Robert Alan Dahl (b. 17 December 1915), is the Sterling Professor emeritus of political science at Yale University. He is past president of the American Political Science Association and one of the most distinguished political scientists writing today.Dahl has often been described as "the Dean" of American political scientists.He's earned this title by his prolific writing output and the fact that scores of prominent political scientists studied under him.One could argue that since Dahl has been associated with Yale,it's political science department had been the most influential in the nation. In the 1960s, he was involved in a landmark dispute with C. Wright Mills over the nature of politics in the United States. Mills held that America's governments are in the grasp of a unitary and demographically narrow power elite. Dahl responded that there are many different elites involved, who have to work both in contention and in compromise with one another. If this is not democracy in a populist sense, Dahl contended, it is at least polyarchy (or Pluralism). In perhaps his best known work, Who Governs? (1961), he examines the power structures (both formal and informal) in the town of New Haven, Connecticut, as a case study, and finds that it support this view. In more recent years, Dahl's writings have taken on a more pessimistic tone. In How Democratic Is the American Constitution? (2001) he argued that the constitution is much less democratic than it ought to be given that its authors were operating from a position of "profound ignorance" about the future. However, he adds that there is little or nothing that can be done about this "short of some constitutional breakdown, which I neither foresee nor, certainly, wish for." In another landmark book, "Democracy and Its Critics" (1989), Dahl makes his view about democracy clear. No modern country meets the ideal of democracy. Instead, he calls politically advanced countries "polyarchies." Polyarchies have elected officials, free and fair elections, inclusive suffrage, rights to run for office, freedom of expression, press, and association. Those institutions are a major advance in that they create multiple centers of political power. However, they fall short of the standard of democracy. Democracy, in Dahl's view, requires more citizen participation and tighter control of policies by citizens than any existing nation has achieved.In an interview with for the oral history project of the American Political Science Association,Dahl admitted his long time commitment to socialism. He was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science in 1995.
Criticism Bibliography The following is not the complete list: Dahl has written extensively -- most libraries, in most places in the world, will contain at least one of Dahl's books. LondonYale University Press, 2003). Fondo de Cultura Económica USA, 2003). MIT Press, c2003). Prentice Hall, c2003). Fondo de Cultura Económica USA, 2003). On democracy. (ParisNouveaux horizons, 2001). Yale University Press, c2001). LondonYale University Press, c1998, Yale Nota Bene, 2000). ISBN 0-300-08455-2 reflections, 1940-1997.(Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Press, University of California, Berkeley, 1997). an essay.responses by Richard M. Abrams ... et al.. (Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Press, 1994). authority in a good society.Rev. ed. (New Haven Yale University Press, c1990). Yale University Press, c1989). OxfordNew YorkNorwegian University PressDistributed world-wide excluding Scandinavia by Oxford University Press, c1986). University of California Press, c1985). autonomy vs. control.(New Haven Yale University Press, c1982). promise and performance.4th ed. (Boston Houghton Mifflin Co., c1981). promise and performance.3d ed. (Chicago Rand McNally College Pub. Co., c1976). introduction de Pierre Birnbaum. Traduction deModern political analysis. (ParisR. Laffont, 1973). Yale University Press, 1971). l'autorité dans une société modèle. traduit par Annie de Mèredieu (Paris; Calmann-Lévy, 1972)) S.I.D.I.I.S. (impr. Firmin-Didot et Cie), 1966). Yale University Press, 1968, c1966). Rand McNally 1967). W.W. Norton 1964). University of Chicago Press, 1976). Democracy and Power in the American City, (Yale University Press, 1961) University of Chicago Press, c1956). Yale Institute of International Studies, 1949). | ||||||||
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