ABSTRACT
Robert Dahl’s writings on power have been both very influential and repeatedly criticized. The critics, however, have not always portrayed Dahl’s views as accurately as one might wish. This essay will review the roots of this criticism and examine some examples of misinterpretations of Dahl’s concept of power. It has become commonplace to begin a study of power with references to Dahl’s ‘The Concept of Power’ (1957), his Who Governs? (1961), and/or the controversy that followed – usually dubbed ‘the community power debate’.1 This essay will therefore begin with an overview of these works and the ensuing ‘debate’, which continued into the 1970s. The essay will conclude with an examination of a number of misinterpretations of Dahl’s concept of power.
