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One of the difficulties that confronts anyone who attempts to answer the question, "Who rules in a pluralist democracy?" is the ambiguous relationship of leaders to citizens.

— Robert A. Dahl Who Governs?: Democracy and Power in an American City (1961)

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More quotes by Robert A. Dahl

Is the ordinary person incompetent? No judgment is more decisive for one's political philosophy. It was perhaps the single most important difference in judgment between Plato and Aristotle.

In a magic show, mystification is a good thing, but it is hardly to be commended in an economic program.

After the Revolution? (1970)

The democratic process in governing a country is not necessarily enhanced by democratizing subsidiary parts of the process.

After the Revolution? (1970)

Even in a democratic country, it appears, nondemocratic forms of authority might sometimes be tolerable, perhaps actually desirable.

After the Revolution? (1970)

Actual practices in the advanced democratic countries are, then, far too diverse and complex to be captured by ideologies.

After the Revolution? (1970)

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