David Truman's Pluralism Theory

Citizens of a democracy are inherently opinionated. This trait exists in Americans as part of individualism and collective morality that drives them to value the importance of the nation’s future. Many seek ‘skin in the game’ or to participate in the political process. Per David Truman’s ‘Pluralism Theory’, this desire to participate manifests itself as formal aggregations of common interests or interest groups, social movements, and political parties (among others). To explain what each of these proxies entails I will be going into what each of these three divisions necessitates, as well as their structures and relationship with the government.
To begin, organized interests have significant sub-divisions that preclude them from uniformity. …show more content…
The reason this distinction is so clear is obvious. Parties, in no small way, maintain sovereignty over both organized interests and social movements. Both of the aforementioned congregations of issue oriented citizens require political parties to gain acceptance and fight for relevance and redress in mainstream society. Political parties (i.e. Democrats & Republicans) are the devices by which the ideological stage is set. They necessitate a somewhat unified ideology, a voter pool, candidates to run for election and for those candidates to represent the interests of the party members. Political parties use candidates to influence politics, while social movements use protests and mass demonstrations, and organized interests use contributions and lobbyists. Party’s relationship to the government is that for all intensive purposes they are what most of us would consider when hearing the synecdoche “the government”. These elected representatives form public policy through writing and voting directly on bills. Their relation to the government is that they are the fabric of the system that organized interests work within and social movements seek to become a part