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Neo-Pluralism: A Class Analysis of Pluralism I and Pluralism II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

John F. Manley
John F. Manley*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Abstract

This article is a critique of contemporary pluralist theory as found largely in the work of Robert A. Dahl and Charles E. Lindblom. Two different forms of pluralism are distinguished and compared critically with Marxist class analysis. Pluralism, it is argued, fails to account for the reality of political and economic inequality in the United States. As a theory, pluralism is also marked by increasing tension between the underlying values and the performance of American polyarchy. The overall result is that pluralism's utility as a description and explanation of the American political economy is called into serious doubt, and a case is made for the explanatory superiority of class analysis.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 368 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1983

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