Dahl Public Good Citizen

Dahl outlines models of citizenship with two forms: good citizens and adequate citizens. He claims that good citizens are, "highly concerned about public affairs and political life; well informed about issues and, where these are relevant choices, candidates, and parties; engaged often with fellow citizens in deliberations on public matters; an active participant in efforts to influence governmental decisions by voting, communicating views to public officials, attending political meetings" ( Dahl, 262). Overall to Dahl a good citizen in a democracy is one that is concerned with the public good and engaged in maintaining the public good in political life. The adequate citizen in Dahl's eyes in someone who is an active participant in choices that best serve their interests, not ones of the public good. He says, "each citizen should seek to foster the interests or good of oneself… the 'public' good consists, then, of the total of all the individual interests" (Dahl, 262). They use political choices most likely to advance their interests and think that their

He claims that positive freedom includes everything that is "freedom to" which is freedom with a purpose. It is about self-mastery, and discipline, "The 'positive' sense of the word 'liberty' derives from the wish on the part of the individual to be his own master. I wish my life decisions to depend on myself, not external forces of whatever kind." (Dahl, 149). People are free to become autonomous and "participate in the process by which my life is to be controlled" (Dahl, 148). However, negative freedom consists of the 'freedom from' which is the absence of external constraints, "the area within which a man can act unobstructed by others." (Dahl, 141). An example of this would be freedom of speech, nothing can get in the way of a person saying what they want. This liberty focuses on privacy and "pursuing our own good in our own way."(Dahl,