Pluralism - A State Theory

Pluralism
It is defined as a society where
multiple people, groups, or
entities share politicalpower
Influenced the nature of the
relationship between the
government and civil society
I s s u e s a g a i n s t P l u r a l i s m:
1. No agreement on what constitutes pluralism
2. Pluralism pays little attention to the nature of
the state and even less to state theory.
3. The epistemological foundation of pluralism is
an opposition to monism and the view that there
can be a single unified and universal body of
knowledge.
Liberal Democracies
More Pluralistic
Authoritarian Regimes
Less Pluralistic

Roots
of
Pluralism
EUROPE began as a reaction to monism and absolutist state
UNITED STATES developed as a response to limit state power in
the new constitution
English Pluralist Pluralism is a normative theory
Fundamental Principle of Pluralists
● Diversity is good that prevents the dominance of
one particular idea
● The importance of liberty and distrust to the state
English Pluralists were
concerned with the two
elements in their
understanding of the state
● Notion of the state
● Role/relationship of groups

Roots
of
Pluralism
United States
● Individuals exist through groups
● Power of the state must be limited to avoid groups being
crushed
● They also believe that centralized state had to be replaced
by new institutional order
Middlemas (1979) emphasizes bias
in British state
● The role of groups was always mediate through sovereign core
executive
● Highly limited in the influence on policy

The Ri se
Of
Ameri can
Plurali sm
- It developed as both an empirical and normative political theory; a mechanism for understanding
US politics and a framework of what politics should be.There is an assumption in the literature on
pluralism of a break between the pluralism of the early twentieth century theorists and the post-
war empirical political pluralism.
- The founder of modernAmerican pluralism,Arthur Bentley, there is a direct link to John Dewey
(Ratner andAltman 1964). From Bentley, modern pluralists have adapted the classical pluralist
emphasis on the role of groups in politics and the need to contain the power and competence of
the state.
- As pluralist theory developed, however, it transformed from a normative theory – this is how
things should be – to an empirical theory – analysing how power is distributed. ‘That is, they
support the claimsAmerican political leaders typically make to justify their power’.
- Pluralist theorist in post-warAmerica confused normative claims with empirical reality. Pluralists
desired a state limited by multiple power centres and the influence of groups and this was their
perception of politics in post-warAmerica.
Key elements of Pluralist state theory (Dahl)
Important government policies would be arrived at through negotiation,
bargaining, persuasion and pressure at a considerable number of
different sites in the political system – theWhitehouse, the bureaucracies,
the labyrinth of committees inCongress, the federal and state courts, the
state legislatures and the executives, the local governments. No single
organized political interest, party, class, region or ethnic groups would
control all of these sites.

The Ri se
Of
Ameri can
Plurali sm
-For pluralists the fundamental features ofUS politics are agreed. Political conflicts are not
about the boundaries of the system, they are usually about the distribution of resources
within the system
- During the 1960s and 1970s pluralism was subject to both an empirical and academic
critique. Empirically many of the assumptions concerning pluralism were challenged by the
civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam war movements of the 1960s.The civil rights
movement illustrated that a group with a forceful grievance was excluded from the political
protest.
- In many ways theVietnamWar was a greater challenge to pluralism. It undermined any claim
thatAmerican politics was based on consensus.The anti-war protest refuted the idea of a
shared sense ofUS politics and society-wide agreement over the form of the political system.
The collapse of the consensus fed into a number of academic critiques of pluralism
-what pluralism was presenting was aColdWar inspired view of theAmerican system.The
picture of a perfect functioning democracy, differentiating power and open to all interests was
hiding a process of manipulation, exclusion and elite dominance.This was Merelman’s
legitimizing discourse, intent on demonstrating the superiority of theAmerican system. Second,
theVietnamWar and civil rights movement, and the more radical women’s and gay movements
that followed, undermined the notion there was a general acceptance of values in society (
Lockwood 1964). Indeed, the period since the 1960s has seen a considerable bifurcation of beliefs
in theUS between say those who support notion of gay marriage and the fundamentalist
Christian Right. Pluralism was based on observable power not the way hidden structures and
ideas shape the political agenda (Polsby 1980: 4; Polsby 1960: 477).

The Re f or mul a t i on
• Developed from critiques ofAmerican democracy (Lowi and
McConell) and the rethinking of the nature of pluralism (Dahl
and Lindblom).
• Follows the idea of early pluralists about the role of groups in
policy-making process but also recognize that some groups are
powerful compared to others like businessgroups.
• The state is fragmented. And businessin this kind of state has a
privileged position.
• Challenge it faced: Manley’s criticism to neo-pluralists’ seeing
state as neutral and failing to problematize the state. (Failed to
see the state as an independent source of political power.)
A response to the events
of 1960s 1970s.
of P l ur a l i s m
Developed into two
different forms (in the
United States and
Britain).
The distinct notion of neo-pluralism in
America.

Developments
in
British
Pluralism
• The work of Richardson & Jordan did much of the inclusion of a pluralist conception of
decision-making into contemporary British Political Science
• Richardson & Jordan’s work drew explicitly on the work ofAmerican Political Scientists in the
pluralist tradition such as Bentley.
• They argued that “The interplay of interest groups is the dominating feature of the policy
process inWestern Europe” & that the adoption of policies is the “reflection of the strength
of particular groups at any one time.”
• Richardson and Jordan tried to develop the pluralist tradition by drawing on the works of
laterAmerican group theorists who saw the political system as fragmented into distinct
policy domains.
• pluralism did not develop dominance in Britain like it did in the United States due to
Britain’s elitist and insular system
• Despite unpopularity, pressure group studies developed in Britain in the 60s
• Richardson and Jordan used the term policy community to describe the way that
the British state fragmented into a number of policy domains within which
particular interests may predominate
• Richardson and Jordan maintained most of the presumptions of the pluralist
position despite their modifications toAmerican pluralism
• Their framework was undermined by the fact that the Thatcher government was
anything but consensual in terms of most pressure groups and by their failure to
recognize that many groups were excluded from open policy domains
• They made three fundamental errors, namely: plurality for pluralism, the
assumption that groups had influence because they were on the consultation
lists of officials, and they saw networks as essentially agency-based.

Developments
in
Contemporary
Pluralism
Despite almost a century of empirical and theoretical critiques of Pluralism, Pluralist traditions
remain strong.
Critics of Pluralism: Marxism and Elitism
Pluralism’s strength derives from its normative appeal and the fact that much of it accords with
our intuitive sense of liberal democracy.
4 main ways that Pluralism has
developed in contemporary
political science

Governance
• Governance is a term used to describe the making of public policy and the delivery of
public goods in modern states following the rise of the new right, the development of
new public management public sector reform and globalization.
• New way of understanding the state and its relationship with civil society.
• The fundamental premise of the governance position is that the central state is no
longer the dominant force in determining public policy.
• We now live in a centerless society. Rosenau (1992)
• Main contention:Competing states where one power is centered among many.
• For Rhodes (1997) it is governing without government and hence the development of
a differentiated polity where no single interest is able to dominate the policy process.
• One important development has been the notion of multi-level governance (MLG).
• The key premise of MLG is that authority has dispersed away from centralized nation
states, and that there are multiple sites of decision-making each involving different
actors and interests.
• The continuance of the pluralist of not problematizing the state has been seen as a
benign force that has weakened significantly and is now challenged by multiple
power centers.

Civil Society
and
Social Capital
• A strong civil society, community organization, and citizen activism
are important both as bulwarks against the state and as mechanisms
for delivering public goods.
• Dewey and Follet, earlyAmerican pluralists, emphasized that
individual identity was essential both to protect individual freedom
and to limit the power of the state.
• The group was the building block of a healthy and democratic polity.
• For pluralists, the dependence on the state for collective provision of
goods results in an overbearing state and the loss of individual
liberty.
• For Putnam, membership of associations builds trust and this social
capital is essential for economic development:
• Social capital is coming to be seen as a crucial ingredient in
economic development around the world. Putnam (1993)
• Like other pluralist, Putnam sees a simple voluntarist solution to
deep-seated structural problems and ignores the constraints that
may exist on group organization.
• What this perspective leads to is a limited role for the state.
• Why?
• The state has to develop social linkages rather develop large-scale
welfare and economic programs to tackle social inequality and
economic development.

Radical
Democracy
and
Association
• Civil society and the importance of social
movements as a mechanism for controlling and
circumventing the monopolizing tendencies of the
state
• Like traditional pluralists, radical democrats see
social movements as crucial elements in society.
• Civil society is complex and pluralist, with individuals
belonging to an array of social groups.These groups
do not have preordained existence or identify but
develop as a consequence of struggle and social
interaction (McClure 1992: 115)
• Political transformation is vested in social groups

Multiculturalism
and
PluralSociety
is based on the idea that no single
set or norms or values should
dominate a society and that the role
of the state should be about
reconciling different interests rather
than ensuring the dominance of a
particular group.
M u l t i c u l t u r a l i s m Cha r a c t er i s t i c s of
Mul t i c ul t ur a l i s m
Multiculturalism is based on the
notion of group identities.
Multiculturalists are opposed to the
notion that a single group (and in
particular the majority group) can
dominate other groups.
Rol e s of t he S t a t e
To provide equal treatment and
to balance conflicting group interests

Conclusion
Four assumptions
by most pluralists
1. Groups rather than individuals are crucial to understand politics
2.The role of the state needs to be limited
Critic/s against
Pluralists
3. Groups can be alternative to the state
4.In liberal societies, power is distributed, and economic and political
power is separated between different spheres of government
-The failure to problematize the state
-Their focus on groups
- Failure to tackle the issue of state power
Pluralismdeemed
remarkable
-A normative theory that
significantly appeals to liberals,
radicals, and conservatives
-The capability and willingness
to respond to critics and change

Pluralism - A State Theory

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