Abstract:

This study is an attempt to understand the theory of political pluralism, which tries to explain how various social groups determine their social preferences through behavioral interaction and transform them into policies. Political pluralism, which attaches importance to the diversity of social, institutional and ideological practices, can be considered historically in two periods as classical and contemporary pluralism. In this study, the distinctive features of these two periods and the conjunctural change experienced by pluralism are also tried to be analyzed succinctly. The arguments of both classical and contemporary understanding of pluralism tell us to take a cautious attitude towards the understanding of absolute sovereignty, which has sprouted in the medieval European society and reached the consecration of the state. It means the lifting of the veil of holiness of the state, the loss of the armor of immunity. Organizations based on different ideas and opinions increase social diversity and contribute to the development of democracy. So much so that as the power of civil society increases, the state becomes socially controllable. In other words, institutional and social pluralism serves the protection of rights on the one hand, and the political development of society on the other. Traditional policies such as an election or inter-party competition are of secondary importance in the evaluations of the New Pluralists. Despite all its flaws and failures, they continue to believe that the Western-style liberal state is the most rational, and most advanced administrative organization of the modern era. They argue that the importance of private entrepreneurship will increase, recognizing that class-based political divisions will decrease, post-industrial societies will be liberated from the domination of ideologies, and the influence of representative institutions on the functioning of the state will decrease. For this reason, the state should stop its interventions in social life, especially in the economy, and interest groups should be allowed to compete freely. Political pluralism offers serious expansions to prepare the conditions for the coexistence of various social groups that have got very different interests. However, the acceptance of the nature of social phenomena such as power and sovereignty as neutral leads to inadequacies in their arguments regarding concrete explanation.

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