An Analysis of the Theories of Democracy
According to Weber, the development of mass citizenship makes it very necessary to have bureaucratic officials. A representative multiparty democracy will help keep a balance in the system and help prevent both political leaders from arbitrarily making decisions and power being completely taken by bureaucrats.
Weber argued that in order for democratic systems to be effective there must be more than one political party that each represents different interests so that voters have a variety of choices, and there has to be political leaders who are able to abstain from the rule of bureaucracy. He believes that rule by elites is inevitable and that hopefully those elites will effectively represent our interest in an innovative and insightful fashion.
Joseph Schumpeter’s view was pretty much the same as Weber’s. He felt that democracy can only offer the possibility of Replacing one political leader or party with another.
The pluralist theory was influenced by Weber and Schumpeter, although they developed their ideas somewhat differently. They believed that interest groups limit the centralization of power in the hands of government officials. Competing interest groups or factions are necessary to democracy because they reduce the sole influence of any one group or class. There needs to be a balance among competing interests in order to be considered in democratic political order. This situation influences elections because parties need to be responsive to many different interest groups. The US is considered to be the most pluralistic of industrialized societies, and, therefore, is the most democratic.
The theory of the “Power Elite” was established by C. Wright Mills. He argues that political order, the economy and the military have become more centralized and have combined with one another to form a unified system of power that runs the country and also influences a great deal of the rest of the world. Mills argues that there are three levels of power in the US: the Power Elite occupies the highest level, which makes most of the important policy decisions, interest groups occupy the middle level, which have limited amount of influence, and the large mass of population is at the bottom, which has little or no influence at all. Since the Power Elite spans the top of both party organizations and are run by individuals with similar overall interests and outlooks, the voters have so little choices that they are not that important.
Mill’s claimed that the military plays a central role in the Power Elite, and Dwight D. Eisenhower supported his claim with a warning in his farewell speech. He stated that there was a “military-industrial complex” and that they must protect themselves against attaining its unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought. He stated that “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
