La democrazia dei pochi. L’eredità dell’anti-elistismo e le sfide alla teoria democratica

[Autom. eng. transl.] This article reviews the criticism addressed in the 1960s to the so-called "democratic elitism" by some radical political scientists and in particular by Peter Bachrach. First, the text examines the points of the attack against the elitist theory of democracy built by American political scientists in the 1940s and 1950s. Secondly, he argues that "democratic elitists" and "anti-elitists" implicitly shared some assumptions and that, for this very reason, the debate ran aground on a sandbar. Finally, the article proposes a 'cultural theory' of democracy as a way to overcome the contrast between elitism and anti-elitism.