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A Preface to Economic Democracy (Volume 28)
Tocqueville pessimistically predicted that liberty and equality would be incompatible ideas. Robert Dahl, author of the classic A Preface to Democratic Theory, explores this alleged conflict, particularly in modern American society where differences in ownership and control of corporate enterprises create inequalities in resources among Americans that in turn generate inequality among them as citizens.
Arguing that Americans have misconceived the relation between democracy, private property, and the economic order, the author contends that we can achieve a society of real democracy and political equality without sacrificing liberty by extending democratic principles into the economic order. Although enterprise control by workers violates many conventional political and ideological assumptions of corporate capitalism as well as of state socialism. Dahl presents an empirically informed and philosophically acute defense of "workplace democracy." He argues, in the light of experiences here and abroad, that an economic system of worker-owned and worker-controlled enterprises could provide a much better foundation for democracy, political equality, and liberty than does our present system of corporate capitalism.
Arguing that Americans have misconceived the relation between democracy, private property, and the economic order, the author contends that we can achieve a society of real democracy and political equality without sacrificing liberty by extending democratic principles into the economic order. Although enterprise control by workers violates many conventional political and ideological assumptions of corporate capitalism as well as of state socialism. Dahl presents an empirically informed and philosophically acute defense of "workplace democracy." He argues, in the light of experiences here and abroad, that an economic system of worker-owned and worker-controlled enterprises could provide a much better foundation for democracy, political equality, and liberty than does our present system of corporate capitalism.
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 28, 1956
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About the author
Robert A. Dahl
60 books100 followersRobert A. Dahl was one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century, best known for his foundational work on pluralist democracy and the concept of "polyarchy." A Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, Dahl advanced empirical approaches to political science and reshaped understandings of democratic theory through both descriptive and normative lenses. He argued that political power in democracies is distributed among multiple interest groups rather than centralized in a single elite, a view he expounded in seminal works such as A Preface to Democratic Theory (1956) and Who Governs? (1961), the latter based on a case study of New Haven, Connecticut. His concept of polyarchy described modern representative democracies as systems characterized by key institutions like free elections, inclusive suffrage, and civil liberties.
Born in Inwood, Iowa, and raised in Skagway, Alaska, Dahl drew early insights from his experiences among working-class communities. After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, he completed his Ph.D. at Yale in 1940. He served in World War II as a reconnaissance platoon leader in Europe, earning a Bronze Star. After the war, he returned to Yale, where he taught for four decades and held leadership roles including department chair. Dahl also served as president of the American Political Science Association in 1966–67.
Throughout his career, Dahl explored the conditions and values essential to democratic governance. He articulated five criteria for evaluating democratic processes—effective participation, voting equality, enlightened understanding, control of the agenda, and inclusion. He also identified seven institutional requirements of polyarchy, such as elected officials, free and fair elections, and associational autonomy. In his later work, including Democracy and Its Critics (1989) and On Democracy (1998), he examined democracy’s advantages over other forms of governance, such as fostering political equality and safeguarding personal freedom.
Dahl remained critical of American political structures, particularly the U.S. Constitution, which he saw as undemocratic by contemporary standards. In How Democratic Is the American Constitution? (2001), he critiqued the framers’ limitations, while acknowledging the practical challenges of reform. He continued to address issues of political equality in On Political Equality (2006).
Dahl was the recipient of numerous honors, including two Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Awards and the inaugural Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. His legacy lives on in both theory and practice, with the American Political Science Association establishing the Robert A. Dahl Award in his honor. He passed away in 2014, leaving a lasting imprint on the study and practice of democracy.
Born in Inwood, Iowa, and raised in Skagway, Alaska, Dahl drew early insights from his experiences among working-class communities. After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, he completed his Ph.D. at Yale in 1940. He served in World War II as a reconnaissance platoon leader in Europe, earning a Bronze Star. After the war, he returned to Yale, where he taught for four decades and held leadership roles including department chair. Dahl also served as president of the American Political Science Association in 1966–67.
Throughout his career, Dahl explored the conditions and values essential to democratic governance. He articulated five criteria for evaluating democratic processes—effective participation, voting equality, enlightened understanding, control of the agenda, and inclusion. He also identified seven institutional requirements of polyarchy, such as elected officials, free and fair elections, and associational autonomy. In his later work, including Democracy and Its Critics (1989) and On Democracy (1998), he examined democracy’s advantages over other forms of governance, such as fostering political equality and safeguarding personal freedom.
Dahl remained critical of American political structures, particularly the U.S. Constitution, which he saw as undemocratic by contemporary standards. In How Democratic Is the American Constitution? (2001), he critiqued the framers’ limitations, while acknowledging the practical challenges of reform. He continued to address issues of political equality in On Political Equality (2006).
Dahl was the recipient of numerous honors, including two Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Awards and the inaugural Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. His legacy lives on in both theory and practice, with the American Political Science Association establishing the Robert A. Dahl Award in his honor. He passed away in 2014, leaving a lasting imprint on the study and practice of democracy.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 29, 2016
Robert Dahl's Preface to Democratic Theory is not an enjoyable read but it is nevertheless an important work in political science. The book's not enjoyable because it suffers from being a product of its time, and in its time it seemed necessary to approach the social sciences like the more mathematically rigorous sciences. That often meant, for example, using graphs and charts to little to no avail in the way of increasing explanatory power of the theory being advanced, and also couching the language of the argument in propositions and axioms, in order to make the soundness of the argument appear as solidly grounded as a geometric system. Criticisms aside, Dahl's book is extremely important for advancing political science in the study of democratic theory.
The important distinction Dahl's Preface to Democratic Theory introduces is that between the realities of actually functioning institutions and the ideals to which these institutions make reference to. Dahl refers to the really existing institutions of countries like, say, the United States or Great Britain, any country often referred to as a democracy, as "polyarchies." He defines the ideal institutions as democracies. The really existing institutions, the polyarchies, are what we find when we actually look as the institutions as they function in these different political territories. And what we find is that these countries are managed by a small group of elected officials who serve periodically in their offices as a result of public voting. Also in these countries the citizens enjoy a great degree of freedom expression, have access to sources of information outside government sources, and they can and do form parties to protect various interests. It is in later works that Dahl marks the contrast between polyarchies and ideal democracy. For example, in Dahl's later work, On Political Equality, he argues that citizens must have control over the country's political, economic, and social agenda and all the citizens must be able to effectively participate and have equal say in shaping that agenda. Furthermore, the citizens should all have enough equal opportunities to discover the information relevant to the decision-making process and then act according to the best information. Dahl, of course, acknowledges that this is the ideal and that really existing institutions have not yet achieved the ideal of democracy.
The important distinction Dahl's Preface to Democratic Theory introduces is that between the realities of actually functioning institutions and the ideals to which these institutions make reference to. Dahl refers to the really existing institutions of countries like, say, the United States or Great Britain, any country often referred to as a democracy, as "polyarchies." He defines the ideal institutions as democracies. The really existing institutions, the polyarchies, are what we find when we actually look as the institutions as they function in these different political territories. And what we find is that these countries are managed by a small group of elected officials who serve periodically in their offices as a result of public voting. Also in these countries the citizens enjoy a great degree of freedom expression, have access to sources of information outside government sources, and they can and do form parties to protect various interests. It is in later works that Dahl marks the contrast between polyarchies and ideal democracy. For example, in Dahl's later work, On Political Equality, he argues that citizens must have control over the country's political, economic, and social agenda and all the citizens must be able to effectively participate and have equal say in shaping that agenda. Furthermore, the citizens should all have enough equal opportunities to discover the information relevant to the decision-making process and then act according to the best information. Dahl, of course, acknowledges that this is the ideal and that really existing institutions have not yet achieved the ideal of democracy.
August 13, 2022
Madisonian? Populistic? Polyarchic? Democracy, you spin me right round, baby round, like a record, but sadly those are not in use anymore (beside somewhere in a hipster's basement, in Brooklyn, or Montreal, pick your poison.). A technical breakdown of the various forms that democracy can take, examining both the positive and the negative (populist democracy is one scary system, homey.), this book is a great piece of introduction to political science, cutting through the usual platitudes given by normative educators in the public system.
August 28, 2009
This is the first book I have read on this specific subject. It included a good introductory discussion of the inherent issues of democracy, making much reference to Tocqueville's Democracy in America. It grappled with equality vs. liberty and the lack of democracy in the private economic sector. The last part of the book contains an interesting proposal about how a more egalitarian structured economy could look, which would involve democratically controlled enterprises.
I was left with questions about how the consuming side could be democratized, how his proposal might still lead to concentration of wealth, and also how capital can somehow be associated with persons so that it always goes with them wherever they choose to work. I would recommend this book.
I need to note that World Watch magazine, vol. 22, No. 5 September/October 2009 contains an excellent up-to-date article on this subject. What a coincidence stumbling on that article right after finishing this book!
I was left with questions about how the consuming side could be democratized, how his proposal might still lead to concentration of wealth, and also how capital can somehow be associated with persons so that it always goes with them wherever they choose to work. I would recommend this book.
I need to note that World Watch magazine, vol. 22, No. 5 September/October 2009 contains an excellent up-to-date article on this subject. What a coincidence stumbling on that article right after finishing this book!
November 22, 2020
Taking my first, and last, political science course at Grinnell in the sophomore year, I was introduced to Robert A. Dahl, proponent of a pluralist model to explain the functioning of representative government in the USA. Unfortunately, he was not introduced in the context of his debate with C. Wright Mills and G. William Domhoff, the first of whom I had already read and the second of whom I would have liked. Dahl himself, a proponent of political science as just that, a science, adduces a strong argument for his idea of competing interest groups and elites by amassing facts and figures. Sadly, his writing was as dull as his charts. This, and other equally dull texts, turned me off to the subject as an academic discipline though I continued to do my own reading in the field.
November 16, 2020
If we value democracy but endorse authoritarian government within the capitalistic firm, we contradict ourselves. Dahl tries to solve this fundamental problem and argues precise and with empirical evidence. A good read!
December 10, 2022
This is one of the most unusual political science books I have ever read, for there is an occasional reference to mathematical formulas to express how votes are created and applied. Line graphs are also used to express percentages of eligible voters differentiated based on the strength of their preferences.
For example, on page 39 there is the formula:
NP(x,y) > NP(y,x) ↔ x Pg y.
It is explained in the text. NP(x,y) means “the number of citizens that prefer x to y,” and x Pg y means “x is then chosen as government policy to y.” It is a mathematical way of saying that if the number of people that vote for option x over y is greater than the number that vote for option y over x, then the government accepts option x as policy.
The author refers to the ideas of James Madison in describing the various ways that factions, both in the majority and in the minority can somehow seize power in a government. There is analysis of how more than one minority faction can align themselves into the equivalent of a majority in order to take and share power. Making it a very detailed analysis of just what democracy is.
The three branches of the federal government are also described and compared. Of particular interest are the cases mentioned where the United States Supreme Court declared popular laws passed by the Congress unconstitutional more than once. These rulings were eventually overturned by a later court, albeit decades later. These sections of the book seem particularly relevant in the years of the Roberts’ court.
A scientific examination of what democracy is and how it is implemented in the United States, one can see how the contents of this book can be applied to the presidential elections of 2000 and 2016, where the winner lost the popular vote by millions. The victory was in the Electoral College and not the sum of what was in the ballot boxes.
For example, on page 39 there is the formula:
NP(x,y) > NP(y,x) ↔ x Pg y.
It is explained in the text. NP(x,y) means “the number of citizens that prefer x to y,” and x Pg y means “x is then chosen as government policy to y.” It is a mathematical way of saying that if the number of people that vote for option x over y is greater than the number that vote for option y over x, then the government accepts option x as policy.
The author refers to the ideas of James Madison in describing the various ways that factions, both in the majority and in the minority can somehow seize power in a government. There is analysis of how more than one minority faction can align themselves into the equivalent of a majority in order to take and share power. Making it a very detailed analysis of just what democracy is.
The three branches of the federal government are also described and compared. Of particular interest are the cases mentioned where the United States Supreme Court declared popular laws passed by the Congress unconstitutional more than once. These rulings were eventually overturned by a later court, albeit decades later. These sections of the book seem particularly relevant in the years of the Roberts’ court.
A scientific examination of what democracy is and how it is implemented in the United States, one can see how the contents of this book can be applied to the presidential elections of 2000 and 2016, where the winner lost the popular vote by millions. The victory was in the Electoral College and not the sum of what was in the ballot boxes.
January 5, 2025
In some ways I wish to praise this novel sketch of an alternative form of capitalism. It does, in many ways, at first glance, seem to remedy some of the issues inherent to corporate capitalism. However, while a democratization of the workplace may indeed promote more liberty and equality to workers, it does nothing to question the societal issues at play that cause hoarding of capital to occur. Even still, the author constantly compares his novel capitalism to socialism (even saying it is "either, both and neither" which is inherently absurd) yet it is abundantly clear that he either does not understand or care to examine wage labor, exhange values, currency etc as a cause for concern in society. However, I do appreciate the authors points on generational wealth and the navigating of workers shares in the profits not as private but personal property. Ultimately, I can appreciate the novel idea infinitely more than any institution in place, but I do not think all of the considerations that need to be examined have been made.
August 31, 2021
Dahl evaluates Madison's claims surrounding the superiority of majority rule and the threat of tyrannical majority rule. Dahl particularly attacks Madison's idea that the majority should be restrained through institutional checks, arguing instead social prerequisites of democracy (i.e. social checks and balances) are what retain democracy as democratic institutions don't enforce themselves - people do. Essentially, democracy lasts in the U.S. because most participants in politics share important values. American democracy hasn't lasted because of the US constitution, the US constitution has lasted because American society is democratic. I thought the most interesting section of the book is the discussion on how to measure majority preference.
November 8, 2022
Five stars for the argument and the importance of the book. Minus one star for the entirely unnecessary attempt to make 'logically rigorous' arguments instead of just, you know, rigorous arguments. The logic really adds less than nothing, so if you prefer your arguments in words, believe me, you can skip the logic.
May 3, 2021
Good critique of Madison for the implicit class bias and privilege in his concepts of "faction" and "natural rights," but Dahl's interest group pluralism model was pretty handily demolished by C. Wright Mills.
December 14, 2018
Important theory but MASSIVELY DRY.
June 13, 2023
Very good introduction to basic democratic consideration with madisonian democracy part especially useful for European readers
March 1, 2023
Be warned, Dahl writes like an academic who communicated only with other academics. Which is indeed what he was, from what little I know of him based on his bio on Wikipedia. Fortunately he has lots of interesting things to say if you can wade through the waffly writing style.
If you're here for the description of economic democracy like I was, just skip straight to the second half. You won't miss the fluffy first half, though some of the history of economic thought was interesting. The ideas on practical implementation of economic democracy could have done with expansion: a complete system description you will not find here. In Dahl's defence he did indeed call this book a 'preface' to the subject, but the lack of further detail means the ideas presented here are theoretical at best.
The book's examples are extremely dated, and unfortunately mostly specific to the US. Recent political happenings and levels of economic inequality in the US would certainly give Dahl plenty to revise and append. I haven't reduced my rating because of this - Dahl can't help not being with us anymore to update it - but it's good to know for modern readers.
If you're here for the description of economic democracy like I was, just skip straight to the second half. You won't miss the fluffy first half, though some of the history of economic thought was interesting. The ideas on practical implementation of economic democracy could have done with expansion: a complete system description you will not find here. In Dahl's defence he did indeed call this book a 'preface' to the subject, but the lack of further detail means the ideas presented here are theoretical at best.
The book's examples are extremely dated, and unfortunately mostly specific to the US. Recent political happenings and levels of economic inequality in the US would certainly give Dahl plenty to revise and append. I haven't reduced my rating because of this - Dahl can't help not being with us anymore to update it - but it's good to know for modern readers.
July 2, 2024
Too few people have read, or will ever read, this important book. As always, Dahl stands out as an exemplary student, scholar, and advocate of democracy, making his works more crucial now than ever. "A Preface to Economic Democracy" is particularly unique and thrilling because it transcends the traditional boundaries of democratic theory and state governance. In this book, Dahl tackles classic democratic dilemmas, such as the perceived conflict between liberty and equality, and presents a compelling argument for extending democracy to economic enterprises. Dahl's prose is an intellectual dance, effortlessly blending engaging theoretical discussions, meticulous empirical analysis, and subtle yet authoritative calls for greater democracy. I cannot praise this author or his work enough; but if I tried, this book would be at the heart of it.
August 7, 2013
"One of the difficulties one must face at the outset is that there is no democratic theory -- there are only democratic theories." (1)
"[T]he 'Madisonian' theory of democracy is an effort to bring off a compromise between the power of majorities and the power of minorities, between the political equality of all adult citizens on the one side, and the desire to limit their sovereignty on the other." (4)
"If majority rule is mostly a myth, then majority tyranny is mostly a myth too. For if the majority cannot rule, it surely cannot be tyrannical." (133)
"Thus the 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." (146)
"[T]he 'Madisonian' theory of democracy is an effort to bring off a compromise between the power of majorities and the power of minorities, between the political equality of all adult citizens on the one side, and the desire to limit their sovereignty on the other." (4)
"If majority rule is mostly a myth, then majority tyranny is mostly a myth too. For if the majority cannot rule, it surely cannot be tyrannical." (133)
"Thus the 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." (146)
January 21, 2016
Dahl's Preface to Democratic Theory was unenjoyable throughout. Nevertheless, the arguments espoused do not lose merit because of its dry and superficial logic thought experiments. In fact, Dahl is correct, American democracy needs social prerequisites in order to function. The natural follow-up question is.... would Madison disagree? Madisonian democracy is by and large elitist in practice and structure. Only propertied men were allowed to vote at this time. Why? A Marxist would say to monopolize property. I don't believe that. Rather, Madison believed (wrongly I would add) that only the propertied elite would have the social prereqs necessary for democracy. Therefore I believe Dahl is merely pointing out an implicit assumption in Madisonian thought and treating it as an omission.
August 17, 2010
It gets worse with every re-reading. I think I am going to use the introduction and first chapter as a compare/contrast exercise with the Federalist Papers. Dahl dismisses them as "propaganda" but needs them here to start his project. I think it'll be a good exercise for an upper-division American political theory course.
December 24, 2020
Wild to read a book that crystallizes your thoughts so forcefully, clearly, and considerately. I’m sure it needs an update in light of new evidence, but still think it’s preferable to Elizabeth Anderson as an introduction.
September 24, 2009
the begining confused me
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April 10, 2020Well written, thorough and insightful. Easy to read
July 15, 2014
Dahls introduction of the boundary problem, what he calls 'the problem of the unit' and 'the problem of inclusion' is probably the major contribution of this book
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews