Abstract

This article, after reviewing the main arguments put forward by A. O. Hirschman in his famous 1970 book, "Exit, Voice and Loyalty", and in some later works, examines the role that "Voice" can play in a democratic and efficient institutional set-up, reflects on the complex relationships that it can have with "Exit" and, reformulating some of Hirschman's arguments, illustrates the possibility of understanding the distribution of power in contemporary societies through the categories of "Voice" and "Exit".