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A Preface to Democratic Theory.md

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---
bibtex: @book{dahl2006preface,
          title={A preface to democratic theory},
          author={Dahl, Robert A},
          year={2006},
          publisher={University of Chicago Press}
        }
---

Dahl, R (1956) Polyarchal Democracy in A Preface to Democratic Theory, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

CH1

Madison's Hypotheses:

H1: If unrestrained by external checks, any given individual or group of individuals will tyrannise over others (p6) (Tyranny here is claimed to be a severe deprivation of a natural right)

H2: The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands implies the elimination of external checks; The elimination of external checks produces tyranny; Therefore the accumulation of all powers in the same hands produces tyranny.

"Give all power to the many, they will surpress the few. Give all power to the few, they will surpress the many." (Hamilton)

CH2

Primary critique of majoritarianism can be pigeon holed as ethical, empirical or technical

  • technical objections relate primarily to social choice theory & Arrow's Theorm
  • ethical objections: why are political equality & popular sovereignty ends; are they absolute ends and at what cost?
  • to what extend does majoritarianism lead to democratic ends; checks are needed on majorities destroying the system of majoritarianism.

On jurisdiction, Dahl notes that the bounds of inclusion & exclusion are amount the most rigid of political phenomena (p53) Geography provides a practical constraint Selection of boundaries becomes highly problematic for Dahl

Dahl also raises temporal issues. Popular opinion changes; how soon should law reflect those changes and why?

CH3

Polyarchy is loosely defined as any political system where the following exists to a high degree: (p84)

  • every individual performs acts that express interest towards alternatives
  • equal weighting is assigned to those preferences
  • the alternative with the greatest amount of preferences wins
  • any individual can insert a preferred set of alternatives
  • all individuals possess identical information about the options
  • the winner preferences are executed
  • inter-election decisions are subordinate to election decisions

Polyarchy is governed primarily via social means "in the absence of certain social prerequisites, no constitutional arrangements can produce a non-tyrannical republic" (p83)

The condition of political equality requires interchangeability. the interchange of equal amounts from one group to another would not affect the outcome of a decision. (p65) - samples of groups must be homogenous.