Роберт Даль: Жизнь и вклад в теорию демократии

American political scientist (1915–2014)

Robert Alan Dahl (/d//ɑː//l/; December 17, 1915 – February 5, 2014) was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He established the pluralist theory of democracy—in which political outcomes are enacted through competitive, if unequal, interest groups—and introduced "polyarchy" as a descriptor of actual democratic governance. An originator of "empirical theory" and known for advancing behavioralist characterizations of political power, Dahl's research focused on the nature of decision making in actual institutions, such as American cities. He is the most important scholar associated with the pluralist approach to describing and understanding both city and national power structures. In addition to his work on the descriptive theory of democracy, he was long occupied with the formulation of the constituent elements of democracy considered as a theoretical but realizable ideal. By virtue of the cogency, clarity, and veracity of his portrayal of some of the key characteristics of realizable ideal democracy, as well as his descriptive analysis of the dynamics of modern pluralist democracy, he is considered one of the greatest theorists of democracy in history.

Dahl was born in Inwood, Iowa, on December 17, 1915. His father Peter came from a Norwegian family, while his mother Vera came from a Protestant American background. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in 1936 and his Ph. D. from Yale in 1940. After receiving his Ph. D., Dahl worked in the government in Washington DC and then volunteered for a spell in the US army. He served in Europe during World War II, was the leader of a small reconnaissance platoon in an infantry regiment, and earned a Bronze Star. He led a platoon that took part in a major offensive in November 1944. After World War II, Dahl returned to Yale in 1946, where he was offered a temporary position teaching American government. The position became permanent, and Dahl remained at Yale his entire career, until his retirement in 1986. He was Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science from 1955 to 1964, and Sterling Professor from 1964 to 1986. Dahl was departmental chair from 1957 to 1962. Dahl served as president of the American Political Science Association in 1966/67. Dahl was married to Mary Bartlett until her passing in 1970, and then to Ann Sale, a Presbyterian.

In his doctoral thesis in 1940, Dahl critiqued "corporate capitalism" and state socialism as both exemplifying undemocratic traits, arguing for economic democracy and a form of democratic socialism. A similar theme recurred in his A Preface to Economic Democracy in 1985. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was involved in an academic disagreement with C. Wright Mills over the nature of politics in the United States. Mills held that America's governments are in the grasp of a unitary and demographically narrow power elite. Dahl responded that there are many different elites involved, who have to work both in contention and in compromise with one another. If this is not democracy in a populist sense, Dahl contended, it is at least polyarchy (or pluralism). In perhaps his best known work, Who Governs? (1961), he examines the power structures (both formal and informal) in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, as a case study, and finds that it supports this view. From the late 1960s onwards, his conclusions were challenged by scholars such as G. William Domhoff and Charles E. Lindblom (a friend and colleague of Dahl).

One of his many contributions is his explication of the varieties of power, which he defines as A getting B to do what A wants. Dahl prefers the more neutral "influence terms" (Michael G. Roskin), which he arrayed on a scale from best to worst:
Rational persuasion, the nicest form of influence, means telling the truth and explaining why someone should do something, like a doctor convincing a patient to stop smoking. Manipulative persuasion, a notch lower, means lying or misleading to get someone to do something. Inducement, still lower, means offering rewards or punishments to get someone to do something, like bribery. Power threatens severe punishment, such as jail or loss of a job. Coercion is power with no way out. Physical force is backing up coercion with use or threat of bodily harm. Thus, the governments that use influence at the higher end of the scale are best. The worst use the unpleasant forms of influence at the lower end.

In his later writing, Dahl examined democracy, in particular in the United States, with a critical view. In How Democratic Is the American Constitution? (2001), Dahl argued that the US Constitution is much less democratic than it ought to be, given that its authors were operating from a position of "profound ignorance" about the future. However, he adds that there is little or nothing that can be done about this "short of some constitutional breakdown, which I neither foresee nor, certainly, wish for." In On Political Equality (2006), Dahl addresses the issue of equality and discusses how and why governments have fallen short of their democratic ideals. He assesses the contemporary political landscape in the United States.

Baldwin, David, and Mark Haugaard (eds.). 2018. Robert A. Dahl: An Unended Quest. Routledge. Blokland, Hans Theodorus. 2011. Pluralism Democracy and Political Knowledge. Robert a Dahl and His Critics on Modern Politics. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Crothers, Charles H. G. 2015. "Dahl, Robert A (1915–2014)," pp. 655 60, in James Wright (ed. ), International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed. Vol. 5, Elsevier. Dahl, Robert A. 2005. After the Goldrush: Growing up in Skagway. Xlibris Corporation. [A description by Dahl of his days growing up in Alaska.] Dahl, Robert A., and Margaret Levi. 2009. “A Conversation with Robert A. Dahl". Annual Review of Political Science 12: 1 9
Fabbrini, Sergio. 2003. "Bringing Robert A. Dahl's Theory of Democracy to Europe." Annual Review of Political Science 6:1: 119 137. Fisichella, Domenico. 2009. “Robert Dahl: The Democratic Polyarchy,” pp. 11 36, in Donatella Campus and Gianfranco Pasquino (eds. ), Masters of Political Science. Colchester, UK: ECPR Press. Mayhew, David. 2018. "A Biographical Memoir". National Academy of Sciences. Shapiro, Ian, and Grant Reeher (eds.). 1988. Power, Inequality, and Democratic Politics: Essays in Honor of Robert A. Dahl. Westview Press. Utter, Glenn H. and Charles Lockhart (eds.). 2002. American Political Scientists: A Dictionary (2nd ed.) pp 75–78, online. Interview by Richard Snyder. 2007. "Robert A. Dahl: Normative Theory, Empirical Research and Democracy," pp. 113–149, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md. : The Johns Hopkins University Press.