Polyarchy Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Polyarchy, or rule by many, is a representative democracy in which all social classes and demographic groups regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender have roughly equal political access and power within the government. The concept was developed within political science by Robert A. Dahl in a series of publications that began with his 1956 work, A Preface to Democracy and was later refined in his 1971 book, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. Dahl argued the United States was the first nation to develop as a polyarchy. Polyarchies vest policy control and decision-making procedures in elected bodies or through explicit public referenda. People in turn accept the authority and legitimacy of elections and elected bodies.

Conditions necessary for a polyarchy include regular, free and open elections, universal or near-universal suffrage for adults, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press. Polyarchies are also marked by the healthy competition of ideas between groups and interests. Critics of the concept, including Dahl in some of his later works, point out even if a country meets the main criteria of a functioning polyarchy, the system may still disenfranchise segments of its population. For instance, disadvantaged groups, such as those with lower incomes or the impoverished, may not have the same political access as other groups within the society. Also, groups excluded from citizenship or the full rights of citizenship are unlikely to possess the same political rights as the rest of the population.

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