ABSTRACT

Polyarchy is itself a process for economizing. It is one of the major processes for shaping and changing the methods of economizing in the rest of society; thus the shift from laissez faire to welfare state was brought about largely through polyarchal processes. Polyarchy is a means for controlling hierarchy, and hierarchy is an important economizing process. The chapter describes two key conditions in small groups that counteract the tendencies toward inequality of control and strengthen reciprocity. First, leaders must win their control by competing with one another for the support of non-leaders. Political competition may take either blunt or subtle forms, and one must not look for the complex paraphernalia of political campaigns in every polyarchal organization. Second, non-leaders must have an opportunity to switch their support away from the incumbent leaders to their rivals. Given these two conditions, leaders will be highly responsive to the preferences of non-leaders or lose their control.