Polyarchy

In Western European political science, the term polyarchy (Greek: poly "many", arkhe "rule") was used by Robert Dahl to describe a form of government in which power is invested in multiple people. It takes the form of neither a dictatorship nor a democracy. This form of government was first implemented in the United States and France and was gradually adopted by many other countries (Dahl, p. 234, 1989) Including Canada after the signing of the NAFTA agreement by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1994. According to Dahl, the fundamental democratic principle is “the continuing responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens, considered as political equals” with unimpaired opportunities (Dahl, 1971). A polyarchy is a state that has certain procedures that are necessary conditions for following the democratic principle.

In semblance, the word polycracy describes the same form of government, although from a slightly different premise: a polycracy is a state ruled by more than one person, as opposed to a . The word is derived from Greek poly which means "many" and kratos which means "rule" or "strength."

Dahl's original theory of polyarchal democracy is in his 1956 book, A Preface to Democratic Theory. His theory evolved over the decades, and the description in later writings is somewhat different.

In this book, Dahl gives eight conditions, which measure the extent to which majority rule is in effect in an organization. These are (p. 84):

Dahl hypothesized that each of these conditions can be quantified, and suggested using the term polyarchy to describe an organization that scores high on the scales for all the eight conditions.

Also, Dahl viewed polyarchy as a system that manages to supply a high level of inclusiveness and a high level of liberalization to its citizens.

In his 1989 book, Democracy and its critics, Dahl gives the following characteristics of a polyarchy (p. 233):

Dahl's Seven Sets of Conditions for Polyarchy are:

Polyarchy and its procedures by itself may be insufficient for achieving full democracy. For example, poor people may be unable to participate in the political process. It is thought so, because some authors see polyarchy as a form of government that is not intended for greater social justice and cultural realization and to allow the repressed to politically participate.

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