Pluralism, Political Participation, and Third-Party Groups

Abstract

In earlier chapters we focused on the government actors and institutions that constitute American election administration systems and on the context of American federalism as one external factor which influences these systems. Election administration systems are also influenced by the external context of pluralism. Broadly, pluralism argues that nongovernmental interest groups use their resources (e.g., time, money, and membership) to influence the political process. The theory of pluralism suggests that most people, most of the time, need not be interested in politics because they have their own day-to-day lives to contend with. Only when their personal interests are significantly affected will they become involved in the policy process, and their involvement gets the best reception from policy makers when they band together in organized interest groups to push for changes. Thus, people can act on the political system to change rules to advance their needs, as well as act within it. The pluralist system has enough room, or slack, for this to occur because of the fluidity of various interests over time and across the population (Dahl 1961). Thus, the pluralist system in American politics serves as the interface between individual interests and government action through organized interest, advocacy, and third-party groups.1 All that said, perhaps Schattschneider’s critique of the pluralist vision of American politics, “The flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper class accent,” has some traction when one considers the significant resource output necessary to fuel the work of these organizations described in this chapter (1960, 35).