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Robert A. Dahl

Wednesday 21st of January 2026

Capitalism The true contradiction of capitalism is this: it's very success in satisfying a powerful human drive toward the ever-increasing consumption of the outputs of capitalist enterprise contradicts another and even more powerful human drive. This is the drive to seek happiness or, if you prefer, a sense of well-being. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States [D]o we not have every reason to undertake a serious and responsible examination of possible alternatives to our present American Constitution? Or, at the very least, isn't it time – well past time – that we stop thinking of our Constitution as a sacred text and begin to think of it as nothing more, or less, than a means for achieving democratic goals? Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States For my part, I believe that the legitimacy of the constitution ought to derive solely from its utility as an instrument of democrtic government —nothing more, nothing less. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States From the census of 2000 it is easy to calculate that an amendment could be blocked by thirty-four senators from the seventeen smallest states with a total population of 20,495,875, or 7.28 percent of the population of the United States. If miraculously the amendment were to pass the Senate it could then be blocked by thirteen state legislatures in the smallest states with a total population of 10,904,865, or 3.87 percent of the population of the United States. Robert A. Dahl © 2018 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States Our constitution not only permits divided government,  it cannot prevent divided government. And it provides no way out except by elections at fixed intervals— elections that may only reproduce the existing divisions or inaugurate new ones. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States Thus the requirement that an amendment must gain the votes of two-thirds of the members of the Senate gives a veto power to Senators from the small states, and these Senators may act in concert with other colleagues who foresee a reduction in the influence of their states on the presidency. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States To assume that this country has remained democratic because of its Constitution seems to me an obvious reversal of the relation; it is much more plausible to suppose that the Constitution has remained because our society is essentially democratic. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Constitutions [I]t might not be a bad idea if a democratic country, once every twenty years or so, assembled a group of constitutional scholars, political leaders and informed citizens to evaluate its constitution in the light not only of its experience but also of the rapidly expanding body of knowledge gained from the experiences of other democratic countries. Robert A. Dahl, On Democracy  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Consumerism The culture of consumerism exerts far more influence on the thinking and behavior of Americans than what I'll call a culture of citizenship. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2017 Kwiple.com
Democracy [T]he democratic process is unlikely to be preserved unless the people of a country preponderantly believe that it is desirable, and unless this belief comes to be embedded in the habits, practices and culture of that people. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Democracy If  democracy is justified  in governing the state, then it must also  be justified in governing economic enterprises; and to say that it is not  justified in governing economic enterprises is to imply that it is not justified in governing the state.  Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Democracy It is of course easy to show that on any definition that is not simply vacuous, a majority might  harm the interests of a minority, might  act unjustly, might might indeed act tyranically. But if every other alternative kind of regime would also permit injustice and tyranny, then it can hardly be counted as a unique defect of democracy or the majority principle that they do not totally foreclose these possible wrongs. Surely a question to ask is whether democracy is more prone to this kind of wrongdoing than any of the alternatives to it. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Democracy … let me once again view democracy as, ideally at least, a political system designed for citizens of a state who are willing to treat one another, for political purposes, as political  equals. Citizens might view one another as unequal in other respects. … But … they … assume that all citizens have equal rights to participate, directly or in- directly through their elected represen- tatives, in making the policies, rules, laws or other decisions that citizens are expected (or required) to obey … Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Democracy Polyarchy  is … a convenient way of referring to a modern representative democracy with universal suffrage. … [It] … is different from representative democracy with restricted suffrage, as in the nineteenth century. It is also different from older democracies and republics that … lacked many of the crucial characteristics of polyarchical democracy, such as political parties, rights to form political organization to influence or oppose the existing government, organized interest groups, and so on. … Attached to the institutions of polyarchical democracy that help citizens to exercise influence over the conduct and decisions of the government is a nondemocratic process, bargaining among political  and bureaucratic elites.  Robert A. Dahl, On Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Democracy When a demos ceases to believe that the rights necessary to democracy are desirable, their democracy will soon become an oligarchy or a tyranny. There is however, a more insidious route from democracy to oligarchy. Even if most members of the demos continue to believe  in the desirability of these fundamental rights, they may fail to undertake the political actions that would be necessary to protect and preserve those those rights from infringement imposed by political leaders who possess greater resources for gaining their own political ends. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Economics [T]he best economic order would help to generate a distribution political resources favorable to voting equality, effective participation, enlightened understanding, and final control of the political agenda by all adults subject to the laws. … But we may reasonably demand that our economic order also be just. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections After more than a century of experience with other alternatives, isn't it time at last to open our minds to the possibility that first-past-the-post may be just fine for horse races but might not be best for elections in a large and diverse democratic country like ours? Might we not also want to consider the possible advantages of a multiparty system? Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections Strictly speaking, all an election reveals is the first preferences of some citizens among the candidates standing for office. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Government [O]ur hybrid system, which is neither majoritarian nor proportional, may possess the advantages of neither and the defects of both. If it fails to ensure the fairness promised by the proportional vision, it also fails to provide the clear accountability promised by the majoritarian vision. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Inequality American economic luck ran out when an economic order that had generated a fair degree of equality among white male citizens without much planning, regulation or deliberate collective decision was replaced by the revolutionary new order of corporate capitalism. … [T]he agrarian socioeconomic order was destined to be wholly superseded by corporate capitalism. As an unregulated external force, corporate capitalism would automatically generate acute inequalities in the distribution of property as well as other social and economic resources. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Inequality [M]ajor inequalities in wealth and income in countries like the United States do not flow from interfirm or interindustry wage differentials. They are caused primarily by two other factors: a highly concentrated ownership of property and very large payments to top corporate executives whose decisions are, for all pracitcal purposes, independent of all effective external controls. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Markets A market economy inevitably and frequently inflicts serious harm on some citizens. By producing great inequalities in resources among citizens, market capitalism also fosters political inequality among the citizens of a democratic country. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Ownership [I]f … private ownership is a natural and inalienable right, then conceivably that right might be superior  to the right of self-government, and a people might not be entitled to infringe that right even through the democratic process. Although, judged from a purely utilitarian perspective, the consequences of private property might sometimes be harmful, it would not necessarily follow that a people could properly claim the authority to regulate property so as to avoid these consequences. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Ownership If private ownership of economic enterprises is a purely instrumental arrangement, and self-government is a fundamental and inalienable right, then any legal entitlement to private ownership of the economy is subordinate  to the right of self-government, and in a democratic country the people and their representatives would be entitled to decide through the democratic process how far any particular arrangement may, on balance, achieve their values. They could decide that private ownership of economic enterprises was desirable, that public or social owner- ship was preferable, or that any one of an indefinite number of possible combinations would be best. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Political parties The democratic rights incorporated in the Bill of Rights made parties possible; the need to compete effectively made them inevitable; the ability to represent citizens who would otherwise not be adequatelly represented made them desirable. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Political inequality If we were to formulate a general principle and apply it fairly, would not  those most entitled to protection be the least privileged  minorities – rather than those who happen to live in the smallest states? Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Political inequality The main reason, perhaps the only real reason, why second chambers exist in all federal systems is to preserve and protect unequal  representation. That is, they exist primarily to ensure that the representatives of small units cannot be readily outvoted by the representatives of large units. In a word, they are designed to construct a barrier to majority rule at the national level. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2015 Kwiple.com
Political inequality A majority of votes in the Senate can be cast by Senators representing less than 15 percent of the voters. Thus a policy preferred by the representatives of 85 percent of the voters could be vetoed by the representatives of 15 percent of the voters. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality [1952 election results] © 2018 Kwiple.com
Political inequality Many Americans no doubt view the costs of spending time and effort to reduce inequalities in political resources as too high precisely because they view the benefits as low or nonexistent. The absence of perceived benefits to be gained from reducing inequalities in the distribution [of] resources may be more important to them than the relatively high cost of political struggle. In short, the costs of struggle exceed the gains. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2017 Kwiple.com
Political inequality Running directly counter to political equality is a fundamental law governing human nature and human society: Political resources, knowledge, skills and incentives are always  and everywhere distributed unequally. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Political inequality The unequal accumulation of political  resources points to an ominous possibility: political inequalities may be ratcheted up, so to speak, to a level from which they cannot be ratcheted down. The cumulative advantages in power, influence, and authority of the more privileged strata may become so great that even if less privileged Americans compose a majority of citizens they are simply unable, and perhaps even unwill- ing, to make the effort it would require to overcome the forces of inequality arrayed against them. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2017 Kwiple.com
Political inequality Unequal representation in the Senate has unquestionably failed to protect the fundamental interests of the least  privileged minorities. On the contrary, unequal representation has sometimes served to protect the interests of the most  privileged minorities. An obvious case is the protection of the rights of slaveholders rather than the rights of their slaves. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Populism A final and I believe valid ethical objection to the theory of populist democracy is that it postulates only two goals to be maximized — political equality and popular sovereignty. Yet no one, except perhaps a fanatic, wishes to maximize two goals at the expense of all others. … Political equality and popular sovereignty are not absolute goals; we must ask ourselves how much leisure, privacy, consensus, stability, income, security, progress, status and probably many other goals we are prepared to forego for an additional increment of political equality. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Politics In a rough sense,  the essence of all competitive politics is bribery of the electorate by politicians. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Politics Prior to politics, beneath it, enveloping it, restricting it, conditioning it, is the underlying consensus on policy that usually exists in the society among a predominant portion of the politically active members. Without such a consensus no democratic system would long survive the endless irritations and frustrations of elections and party competition. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If majority rule is mostly a myth, then majority tyranny is mostly a myth too. For if the majority cannot rule, surely it cannot be tyrannical. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If the majority rarely rules on matters of specific policy, nevertheless the specific policies selected by a process of “minorities rule” probably lie most of the time within the bounds of consensus set by the important values of the politically active members of the society, of whom the voters are a key group. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power [I]n the usual sense intended, majorities rarely, if ever, rule in any country or social organization at any time. Thus the fear of majority rule, as well as advocacy of it, is founded upon a misconception of the probabilities permitted by political reality. … To the extent that the electorate is numerous, extended, and diverse in interests, a majority faction is less likely to exist, and if it does exist, it is less likely to act as a unity. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power [T]he making of governmental decisions is not a majestic march of great majorities united upon certain matters of basic policy. It is the steady appeasement of relatively small groups. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Regulations If the economic history of the past two centuries tells us anything, it is that state regulation is absolutely essential to insure a reasonable level of market competition, to reduce the harm other- wise caused by unregulated firms and markets, and to insure a more just, or at least more acceptable, distribution of the benefits. Without state regulation, political elites and the public at large would soon sweep private business firms and markets into that well-known dustbin of history. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Tyranny [N]owhere is tyranny more likely than in a society where the constitutional system and the prevailing ideology legitimize the unlimited constitutional power of the majority. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
 
Work I would suppose that workers sacrifice more of their lives by working than investors sacrifice by investing. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy © 2018 Kwiple.com