Who Governs?: Democracy and Power in an American City, Second Edition

In this now-classic work, one of the most celebrated political scientists of the twentieth century offers a powerful interpretation of the location of political power in American urban communities. For this new edition, Robert A. Dahl has written a new Preface in which he reflects on Who Governs? more than four decades after its publication. And in a new Foreword, Douglas W. Rae offers an assessment of Dahl’s achievement in this, Dahl’s greatest and most influential book.

 

“Dahl is never dogmatic, and never imagines that the world stands still to accommodate either the democratic ideal or his own pluralistic theory of city politics. . . .Who Governs? is Dahl’s liveliest and most remarkable book.”―Douglas W. Rae, from the Foreword

 

From reviews of the first edition:

“A book that no one interested in politics can afford to ignore.”―Lewis A. Coser, Commentary

 

“Anyone seriously concerned with current systematic political theory or with urban politics should read Who Governs?”―Hugh Douglas Price, Political Science Quarterly

 

“A sophisticated and undogmatic treatise on democratic politics.”―Heinz Eulau, American Political Science Review

 

“Dahl has illuminated a central question in political science, the problem of how men can govern themselves in complex societies. . . . Who Governs? will become a classic.”―from the citation of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award