Robert A. Dahl: an unended quest

This book is devoted to the work of Robert A. Dahl, who passed away in 2014. Dahl was one of the most important American political scientists and normative democratic theorists of the post-war era, and he was also an influential teacher who mentored some of the most significant academics of the next two generations of American political science. As an incredibly productive scholar he had a career that spanned more than half a century, his first book was published in 1950 his last was in 2007 at the age of 92. As a political scientist, he was respected even by those who were critical of his works.

This theoretical significance and profound influence is reflected in the collection of chapters in this volume, which reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the contemporary US political science scene. His co-author Bruce Stinebrickner documents the evolution of his and Dahl’s seminal text, Modern Political Analysis and how it became the standard introduction to American political science for nearly fifty years. Katharine MacKinnon’s chapter is of significance for its insights upon Dahl and also represents a succinct statement of a feminist reading and critique of contemporary political science. Steven Lukes contributes a highly concise statement of the difference between one-dimensional and three-dimensional power.

This work will be a standard reference work for any researchers or those interested in the work of Robert Dahl, among both established academics and students. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Political Power.

David Baldwin is a Senior Political Scientist at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, USA. He is also an Affiliate at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and Wallach Professor Emeritus of World Order Studies at Columbia University, USA. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Political Science Association, the International Political Science Association, International Studies Association and the British International Studies Association. His research interests include international political economy, international politics, and American foreign policy.

Mark Haugaard is Professor of Political Science at National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. His recent publications include Power and Organizations (2012) and Power and Politics (2012).