Who Governs, Revisited

The course opened by asking who governs, and every unit since has filed evidence without closing the case.

Read the case file both ways. Elite theory's exhibits accumulated steadily: participation climbs with age, income, and education (Gov 206); small, economically advantaged groups organize best while diffuse publics free ride (Gov 270); incumbents compound their advantages election over election (Gov 321); money is a regulated but real instrument (Gov 274); and the branch with the last constitutional word is the one nobody elected (Gov 412). Pluralism's exhibits accumulated beside them: the system's many levels and branches are exactly the access points pluralists name (Gov 012); policy visibly emerges from group contest (Gov 291); major parties absorb the issues movements and third parties prove popular (Gov 263); some states hand citizens the pen directly (Gov 219 through 221); and the linkage machinery — media, parties, groups — does transmit, whatever else it filters (Gov 291). The honest finding after ten units: both theories survive contact with the evidence, which is why the anchor presents them as standing rivals rather than a settled verdict. The measured public of Gov 181 is either being heard or being selected, and the course's whole map is what a citizen needs to argue either side well. The audit is also repeatable: every exhibit named here is a numbered entry carrying its own receipt, so the file can be re-examined at any depth, on any claim, at any time.