ABSTRACT
In order to escape triviality Moscas law must be assumed to imply something more, to wit, that all political societies are ultimately controlled by one minority—and the question thus hinges on how “one” is to be intended. Responsiveness is but one of the elements of representative government. A government that simply yields to demands, that simply gives in, turns out to be a highly irresponsible government, a government that does not live up to its responsibilities. A nonelective polyarchy will meaningfully afford a reciprocal delimitation and control among leaders, at least in the sense that its dispersion defies cartelization. The “feedback model” can be rendered by saying that democracy is an electoral polyarchy. For Dahl this label would be redundant, for his concept of polyarchy includes, by definition, free and competitive elections.
