Pluralism is a theory of political science that is most
closely connected to Robert Dahl, an American political scientist who wrote
Who Governs, which is the seminal work on this theory, in
1961.
Pluralism holds that a democracy works in a way that
is fair to all people because it allows all people to have a voice on issues that matter
to them. Dahl argues that there is no one elite that can control the government in
America. Instead, he says, there are different coalitions of people who control policy
on any given issue. For example, those who are most interested in policy on guns will
control the government on that issue while a different set of people controls policy on
agriculture.
To Dahl, there is easy access to power in the
American system and any group of interested people can be heard if they wish. They will
not always win (because some other group may be stronger), but they will always ahve a
chance to be heard.
So pluralism is a very optimistic view
of how democratic and open the US system is.
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