Dictionnaire de la Science Politique

Authors: Hermet, Badie, Birnbaum & Braud
Summary: This entry of about 315 words compares the historical development of the concept both in the USA and Europe.
Pluralism as critical thought towards political system unitarian theories, had its forerunners in the Anglo-Saxon area, namely in the USA where, already in 1787 in Madison's The Federalist, a strong defence of pluralism qualities can be found. The statement "the wider and more diversified a society, the better able to govern itself" implies both that pluralism is a way of protecting everyone's freedom and that it is a way towards people self-government against every statalist temptation.
It was Tocqueville who brought the pluralistic spirit to Europe, together with his reflections on democracy. According to him, American people had found in the associative form a way of conflict solving and of avoiding both despotism and revolution. Such a phenomenon raised much interest in American political science, which stressed the key role of associations, interest groups and pressure groups in the democratic decision making. The veto groups theory (Riesman) and the poliarchy theory (Dahl) refer to this assumptions.