A Preface to Economic Democracy: Volume 28

by Robert A. Dahl

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520058771
• ISBN13: 9780520058774
• Release Date: August 1986
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.9" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Well Written and Persuasive

Robert Dahl is considered one of America's archetypal theorists of democracy. Most know him for his rather optimistic account of local pluralism in Who Governs, and some have dismissed him as a neo-liberal who ignores the reality of economic power. Yet that condemnation would ignore a marked shift in Dahl's thought later in his life. A Preface to Economic Democracy might be the clearest and most realistic piece of prose I have ever read regarding the connection between democracy and economics, and the most convincing case I have read in defence of decentralized market socialism. Remarkably free of jargon and utopian fervour, Dahl's Preface is an essential book for anyone interested in democracy (radical or otherwise), and in realistic alternatives to untrammelled neo-liberal economics.