Polyarchy

Central to any definition of democracy is electoral representation by means of free elections and representative government. The concept of polyarchy (i.e., rule by many) is an attempt by Robert Dahl to develop an empirical definition of the process of democratization as well as elaborating a set of normative criteria for deciding whether or not a political system can be counted as a democracy. Polyarchy, as presented by Dahl, should be understood as a process developing a set of institutions that comes close to what one could call the ideal type of democracy. Therefore, that public power is essential and authority is effectively controlled by societal organizations and civil associations (e.g., interest groups and political parties). Hence, in Dahl's view, the extent to which these societal actors can and do operate autonomously, as well as independently from the state, will enhance the democratic quality of a polity. Obviously, central to the adequate functioning of polyarchy is not only the existence and working of institutions, but also the existence and actual room for maneuver of societal groups and their organization. The institutionalization of the democratic process of accountable government is a prerequisite, not yet the establishment of a regime as a fully fledged democracy, as many students of democracy appear to think. These necessary institutions are, according to Dahl:

• universal suffrage and the right to run for public office;
• free and fairly conducted elections for all adults;
• availability and observance of the right to free speech and protection to do so;
• the existence and free access to alternative information (not controlled by government);
• the undisputed right to form and to join relatively autonomous organizations, in particular, political parties (and, crucially, parties in opposition);
• responsiveness of government (and parties) to voters and accountability of government (and parties) to election outcomes and government.

This set of institutions taken together distinguishes polyarchy from other regimes. The coming about of these institutions can then be seen as the process toward democratization. The enduring existence and observance of the whole set is the hallmark of an established democracy.

Dahl's concept of polyarchy is not only a seminal contribution to (normative) democratic theory, but has also been a powerful incentive for empirical analysis. Almost by definition, this type of research has been of a comparative nature and has induced a great number of attempts to measure polyarchy as well as its performance according to the democratic ideals. It is therefore important to distinguish between the operationalization of polyarchy aiming at the process of democratization and those that measure the level of democratization.

The concept of polyarchy is currently one of the most widely used terms in political science because it has prescriptive qualities—enhancing democracy as ideal government—combined with empirical options. Both help analyze extant democracies and how they can be further developed.