Pluralism and Idealism

Pluralism is the concept that politics and government are in their essence the result of activities of groups - the maligned "special interests." Nicholas Lemann celebrates the book that defined pluralism, and its relevance here and now:

2008 is the centenary of a curious and mesmerizing book that was long considered the most important study of politics and society ever produced by an American - "The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures" by Arthur Fisher Bentley....Its point can be stated quite simply:All politics and all government are the results of the activities of groups. Any other attempt to explain politics and government is doomed to failure.... Bentley, who seems to have shared the Progressives' goal of using government to curb the power of big business,....believed that [city political machines] had a more accurate understanding of how politics worked than the... liberals did....[He presents] politics as a never-ending, small-bore struggle for advantage among constantly shifting coalitions of interest groups...For Bentley, every political force that matters is an interest group, regardless of whether it cops to the charge.

But the really interesting element of Bentley's theory is that it forces us to take a hard look at our Cinderella visions of pure political actors:

Pluralism, in the tradition of Bentley, requires that one see one's own political passions, and those of such unimpeachable actors as winners of the Nobel prize,...as representing something other than the promptings of pure justice....One has to get over the habit of assuming that "interests", and worse, lobbying and corruption, are the province only of one's political opponents,and not one's allies. Pluralism means dialing down the moral stature that we attach to universalist arguments, and dialing up the moral stature of particularism....

In any political system that gives people the freedom to organize and vote, the logic of pluralism explains why those who do the hard, quotidian precinct work of politics will generally have more influence than those whose political influence is confined to writing, thinking, filing lawsuits, writing regulations, and spending money on media buys.

Being involved in political action on the ground is the only road to change. So join the Blue Army NOW!