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CHAPTER SIX: POLITICAL CULTURE

6.1 Political culture as ‘the sum of the fundamental values, sentiments and knowledge that give form and substance to political processes’ (Pye) (p. 103).

6.2 Almond and Verba's classification: parochial, subject and participant cultures. The civic culture, in which parochial and subject elements counter-balance a participant style, as most conducive to democratic stability (pp. 104-5).

6.3 Declining confidence in political institutions (at least until 1990s) but not democratic principles. Paralleled in USA - but not in other democracies - by declining social trust. Social capital seems to have been preserved elsewhere (pp. 105-9).

 

6.4 Postmaterialism: cultural change in Western democracies. The impact of postwar peace, affluence and educational expansion. Generational replacement as a mechanism. The emergence of political leaders with no experience of world war (pp. 109-10).

6.5 Political culture in authoritarian states: leaders can ignore, exploit or seek to reconstruct political culture. Failure of transformation under communism; effect was to breed passivity (pp.110-12).

6.6 Emphasis of rulers in illiberal democracies on the authoritarian side of the culture: strong-man rule and personal rulership. The Russian case (pp. 112-13).

6.7 The importance of elite political culture. Dimensions: elite faith in its right to rule, willingness to act on the national interest and attitudes to the rules of the game. Lijphart’s elite accommodation in Austria and the Netherlands during the 1950s and 1960s (pp. 113-16).

6.8 Huntington’s clash of civilizations. Against this, Islam as a multi-vocal religion, a cultural resource which can be exploited in innumerable ways. Historically-grounded interpretations of the current disputes between Islam and the West. The danger of civilizations – and of political culture – serving as blanket explanations (pp. 116-20).