Major Works Add to list Added to list

Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy

More informationLess information

The conditions associated with the existence and stability of democratic society have been a leading concern of political philosophy. In this paper the problem is attacked from a sociological and behavioral standpoint, by presenting a number of hypotheses concerning some social requisites for democracy, and by discussing some of the data available to test these hypotheses. In its concern with conditions - values, social institutions, historical events - external to the political system itself which sustain different general types of political systems, the paper moves outside the generally recognized province of political sociology. This growing field has dealt largely with the internal analysis of organizations with political goals, or with the determinants of action within various political institutions, such as parties, government agencies, or the electoral process. It has in the main left to the political philosopher the larger concern with the relations of the total political system to society as a whole.

Full text
‘Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy, SeymourMartinLipset The American Political Science Review, 53 (1) (1959): 69–105. © The American Political Science Association, published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.

Table of Contents

locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles