Pluralism As The Most Descriptive Theory Of American Government Essays

Pluralism As The Most Descriptive Theory Of American Government There are several different theories as to the question of how America is governed. There are those who still espouse the civics book theory, in which the individual is represented by his vote; those who advocate various elitist theories, claiming that we as individuals have no voice, and are merely pawns in some larger game, and there are those others who support what is known as the pluralist theory. Pluralism suggests that policy decisions are not the result of an individual citizen's vote (or a vote of a population of citizens) but instead the result of the interaction and competition of various interest groups. This theory, it can be argued, is the most descriptive of America as we know it. There are several examples on which to draw in order to support this theory. In the April 8th issue of Time Magazine1, there appears an article titled "The New Party Bosses" and subtitled "Who really controls politics? Meet the power brokers who will help decide this year's contest". This is a textbook example of pluralism being a descriptive theory, and I could write this paper based entirely on it, but as the assignment calls for references to the Wilcox book, that's what I'll use.