Robert A. Dahl Short Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

View all Robert A. Dahl Quotes
In a magic show, mystification is a good thing, but it is hardly to be commended in an economic program.

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

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

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

Robert A. Dahl
Democracy in the sense of political equality and majority rule is by no means the most desirable, that is, optimal solution for all kinds of associations.

Robert A. Dahl
If a matter is best dealt with by a democratic association, seek always to have that matter dealt with by the smallest association that can deal with it satisfactorily.

Robert A. Dahl
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
In considering whether a larger association would be more satisfactory, do not fail to consider its extra costs, including a possible increase in the sense of individual powerlessness.

Robert A. Dahl
Probably nothing strengthened the impetus of socialists toward bureaucratic centralization more than their implacable rejection of economic controls in general and the market in particular.

Robert A. Dahl
In addition, a century or more of efforts to arrive at a feasible and politically acceptable mix of market and nonmarket elements has not produced a definitive, stable, or uniform solution.

Robert A. Dahl
I concluded also that Madison bad more confidence in majorities than I gave him credit for; or more accutely, that he was somewhat less distrustful and hostile to majority rule than I had supposed.

Robert A. Dahl