Membership and Consent: Abstract or Organic?

Abstract

CITIZENSHIP WITHOUT CONSENT: ILLEGAL ALIENS IN THE AMERICAN POLITY. By Peter H. Schuckt and Rogers M. Smith.tt New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1985. Pp. viii, 140. $22.50 (Cloth), $6.95 (Paper). In 1970, an essay by Robert Dahl appeared in the Yale University Press' new Fastback series, reflecting on the nature of authority and legitimacy in a just society. What occasioned Professor Dahl's reflections was the recurrent talk of revolution, the reflexive demand for "power to the people," that slipped with surprising ease into political discourse during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Professor Dahl wrote: "Strange as it may seem to you, how to decide who legitimately make up 'the people'- or rather a people-and hence are entitled to govern themselves in their own association is a problem almost totally neglected by all the great political philosophers who write about democracy." Professor Dahl offered a framework for grappling with this fundamental question, and other political theorists have taken up his implicit invitation and are beginning to fill the void he identified.