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92 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1977-1978)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry92 and id is 1 raw text is: On Removing Certain Impediments to Democracy in the United States ROBERT A. DAHL What this nation can become will be influenced, though not fully determined, by the ways in which we think about ourselves as a people. With a people as with a person, it is a sign of wisdom and maturity to understand and accept limits that are imposed by nature's laws and the scarcity of resources, whether physical, human, or political. In this sense we Americans may at last be entering into our maturity. But to accept as real, limits that are imposed only by our own minds, is not wisdom but self-inflicted blindness. Out of our past we have inherited ways of thinking about ourselves that condemn us to try too much and accomplish too little. We fail not so much be- cause our aspirations are too high but because they conflict; and within our- selves, too, we are conflicted in ways we do not fully recognize. In this sense our consciousness, both individual and collective, distorts our understanding of ourselves and our possibilities. An important part of this distortion comes out of a series of historical commit- ments this country has made. It might free up our consciousness for greater po- litical creativity if we were to see those commitments more clearly, to understand better how they conflict with one another, and to choose self-consciously rather than blindly among our possible futures. The expression historical commitment may carry misleading connotations. An historical commitment in the context of this article is nothing neat, tidy, wholly self-conscious, broadly understood, much less agreed to by all, nor a well-shaped historical drama with a clear beginning, a middle, and an end. ROBERT A. DAHL is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the author of A Preface to Democratic Theory, Who Governs?, After the Revolution?, and other works. He is now working on two books on democratic theory. Political Science Quarterly Volume 92 Number 1 Spring 1977

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