Pluralism & Its Critics I

I. WWII as ‘shock therapy’ for democracy

a) Rebuilding of liberal democracy and the United States

            b) The theoretical recasting of democracy

II. Classical Pluralism

a) A more optimistic view of democracy

            b) Groups, factions, minorities as multiple sources of power

            c) Differential, but wider, accessibility for societal groups to system

III. Key Elements

            a) Democracy as contestation by minorities

            b) Stabilizing effect of factionalism

            c) An underlying consensus on the ‘rules of the game’

            d) State as neutral arbiter

IV. Problems

            a) Naïve representation of power among groups.

            b) The problem of history and democratic ‘consensus’