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The City in the Future of Democracy

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  • Dahl, Robert A.

Abstract

I need hardly remind this audience that one of the characteristics of our field is the large number of old and quite elemental questions—elemental but by no means elementary—for which we have no compelling answers. I don't mean that we have no answers to these questions. On the contrary, we often have a rich variety of conflicting answers. But no answer compels acceptance in the same way as a proof of a theorem in mathematics, or a very nice fit between a hypothesis and a satisfactory set of data.Whether the obstacles that prevent us from achieving tight closure on solutions lie in ourselves—our approaches, methods, and theories—or are inherent in the problems is, paradoxically, one of these persistent and elemental questions for which we have a number of conflicting answers. For whatever it may be worth, my private hunch is that the main obstacles to closure are in the problems themselves—in their extraordinary complexity, the number and variety of variables, dimensions qualities, and relationships, and in the impediments to observation and data-gathering.However that may be, a question of this sort often lies dormant for decades or even centuries, not because it has been solved but because it seems irrelevant. For even when no satisfactory theoretical answer exists to a very fundamental question, historical circumstances may allow it to be ignored for long periods of time. Even specialists may refuse to take a question seriously that history seems to have shoved into the attic. What seem like fundamental controversies in one age are very likely to be boring historical curiosities in the next. And conversely it is my impression that a great many of the elemental political questions regarded as settled in one age have a way of surfacing later on.

Suggested Citation

  • Dahl, Robert A., 1967. "The City in the Future of Democracy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(4), pages 953-970, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:61:y:1967:i:04:p:953-970_22
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    Cited by:

    1. Rogers, Ben & da Cruz, Nuno F. & Ripa, Francesco & Hamilton-Jones, Imogen, 2023. "Prosperity beyond growth: an emerging agenda for European cities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119483, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Mildred A. Schwartz, 1977. "The Social Make-up of Canada and Strains in Confederation," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 3(4), pages 458-470, Autumn.
    3. Warren Magnusson, 2014. "The Symbiosis of the Urban and the Political," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1561-1575, September.
    4. Mike Goldsmith, 1992. "Local Government," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 29(3-4), pages 393-410, May.
    5. Janet McIntyre‐Mills & Denise de Vries, 2013. "Part 2: Transformation from Wall Street to Well‐being," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 444-469, July.
    6. Claude S. Fischer, 1972. "Urbanism as a Way of Life," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 1(2), pages 187-242, November.
    7. Sean Fox & Ron Johnston, 2017. "Well-Intentioned Fantasy? A Comment on “Proposals for a Democracy of the Future” by Bruno Frey," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 229-235, November.
    8. Vinarski-Peretz, Hedva & Kidron, Aviv, 2018. "The shadow dance of political climate: Engagement in political behavior in local government authorities," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 608-615.
    9. Louise G. White, 1976. "Rational Theories of Participation," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 20(2), pages 255-278, June.
    10. Juan J. Rivero & Luisa Sotomayor & Juliana M. Zanotto & Andrew Zitcer, 2022. "Democratic Public or Populist Rabble: Repositioning the City amidst Social Fracture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 101-114, January.
    11. Irving Hoch, 1972. "Income and City Size," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 9(3), pages 299-328, October.
    12. Kim Quaile Hill & Tetsuya Matsubayashi, 2008. "Church Engagement, Religious Values, and Mass‐Elite Policy Agenda Agreement in Local Communities," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 570-584, July.
    13. Paul Kantor & H.V. Savitch, 2005. "How to Study Comparative Urban Development Politics: A Research Note," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 135-151, March.
    14. Matthew Lee Howell, 2014. "The Logic of Urban Fragmentation: Organisational Ecology and the Proliferation of American Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(5), pages 899-916, April.

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