ABSTRACT
Some observers of government in the United States find the explanation of its democratic character outside of the formal provisions for the people to select their officials and confront those officials with demands. The interpretation of American experience recounted above is unacceptable to many people, both as a description of what gives the present system of government its democratic character and as a statement of an ideal to be more fully achieved. Neither system for organizing demand and inducing response goes out of business when the other is in its heyday. Elections were held and campaigns for votes took place during the thirty years following the Civil War when historians tell that industrialists and financiers came out best in a contest of the strong for control of governmental power. The pluralist demand-response system also invites great numbers of persons to share in exerting influence on those who make governmental decisions.
