Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City
Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City (ISBN: 9780300103922) was written by Robert Dahl in 1961, with a 2nd edition published in 2005.
Part 1
Part 1 is a survey of the persons of socioeconomic and governmental import across the history of New Haven.
Office holders are studied by their private occupations, how competitive their elections were, what socioeconomic environment they were born into, ethnicity, etc.
The memberships of exclusive social clubs, urban redevelopment projects, and public education offices are tracked for Social Notables.
C level executives of large (50 most valuable by local property assessment) corporations, owners of large (local property assessed at $250k+) wealth, C level executives of any bank or utility, and C level executives of multiple (3+) significant (total assessed at $250k+, or manufacturing with 50+ employees, or retail with 25+ employees) businesses are tracked for Economic Notables.
There was a patrician class formed by a few elite families with close connections to church ministers.
- All similarly religious and socially conservative.
- The approved nominees won annual elections without competition.
- Upper chamber of general assembly elected by paper ballots, but support for candidates outside the approved 12 had to be made public.
- Blank ballots were cast as protest.
- State general assembly passed Stand Up law in 1801.
Social notables pursue professions, not offices. Economic notables tend towards self proclaimed apoliticism.
- Afraid of facing financial consequences of political stances.
- The two groups do not significantly overlap.
Turning point is Jefferson's recall of Adam's midnight appointees. The recalled collector of customs, Elizur Goodrich, was quickly made a professor of law at Yale. Merchants representing "more than seven-eighths" of New Haven port sent a letter to Jefferson in support of Goodrich. By 1818 the Patricians disappear from ballots. (p. 15)
- Democrats and Republicans nominate industrialists, entrepreneurs, etc., going forward.
- Secret ballots starting in 1826.
Theory of ethnic politics: three stages of redistribution of political resources, leading to the end of the ethnic political movement.
- Salience of class politics is independent of salience of ethnic politics. The two work in cycles; when one wanes, the other waxes.
- However, only divisible benefits work well with these social cleavages. Indivisible benefits can supplant them.
My thoughts
The elephant in the room: Dahl's theory of ethnic politics fails to explain the experience of Black Americans.