A apropriação crítica da teoria poliárquica no pensamento político de Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos

Abstract

The following article is an attempt to assess the dialogue the Brazilian political scientist Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos established with the polyarchal theory, which was originally formulated by the North American political scientist Robert Alan Dahl. The polyarchal theory is a reassessment of the democratic theory linked to the concern to understand how the actually existing democracies work. That theory was drawn from the empirical research methods of contemporary political science. The ownership of the polyarchal theory by the Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos thought can be associated to the consolidation of the democracy issue in the political and social Brazilian thought and the consolidation of the political science in Brazil. The dialogue proposed by the Brazilian author also proved to be rather critical, highlighted with objections and proposals for changes in the polyarchal theory, revealing, as it was pointed out, similarities and differences between both related authors. From the evaluation of these criticisms and changes, the conclusion is that they call attention to important phenomena of current democracies, in particular to the problem of the oligarchies, but are not, however, a break with the dahlsiano model.