Power and Democracy in America

Peter F. Drucker · Delbert C. Miller · Miller Robert A.

Dec 2018 · Pickle Partners Publishing

About this ebook

This book is a stimulating contribution to the new literature. It is not intended as a comprehensive review of the full range of topics nor is it solely a summary of research findings. It consists, in essence, of an open-ended debate on a limited series of related issues in which the reader is invited to participate. Who might profit by an examination of these topics? What can a reader expect to learn through perusing this particular account and even vicariously joining in the discussion of the social structure of power, the role of bureaucracy in American life today, and what is meant by a democratic society?

In addition, the book offers the perceptive reader an illuminating example of a much neglected topic in that segment of the new literature which stems from the social sciences, namely, the role of the observer in relationship to what is observed.

The editors should be commended for bringing together not a bland series of polite statements but a stimulating discussion which raises more questions than it answers. More important, it raises questions that have to be posed in any significant appraisal of America today.—John Useem, Head Sociology and Anthropology, Michigan State University

About the author

PETER FERDINAND DRUCKER (1909-2005) was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education, having invented the concept known as management by objectives and self-control, and he has been described as “the founder of modern management”. Drucker’s books and scholarly and popular articles explored how humans are organized across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors of society. He is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers on the subject of management theory and practice. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. DELBERT CHARLES MILLER (1913-1998) was an American organizational theorist and Professor of sociology and business administration at Indiana University, Bloomington, noted for his work on industrial sociology. ROBERT ALAN DAHL (1915-2014) was a political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He established the pluralist theory of democracy—in which political outcomes are enacted through competitive, if unequal, interest groups—and introduced “polyarchy” as a descriptor of actual democratic governance. An originator of “empirical theory” and known for advancing behavioralist characterizations of political power, Dahl’s research focused on the nature of decision making in actual institutions, such as American cities.