Institutional Performance, Political Culture and Political Change

In: Studies in comparative international development, Band 30, Heft 1, S. 84-91

Abstract

A review essay on books by: Ben Ross Schneider, Politics within the State: Elite Bureaucrats and Industrial Policy in Authoritarian Brazil (Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh Press, 1991); Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1993); & Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, The Political Systems of Empires (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1993 [see listings in IRPS No. 85]). Eisentadt's structural functionalist approach to the operation characteristics of empires has been a significant influence, since its initial publication in the 1960s. In this updated edition, comparative sociohistorical studies are linked to the ongoing debate over the utility of the structural-functionalist paradigm in social science. Putnam finds that political culture's behavior-shaping ability is greater than that of institutions, but implies that political culture is static & fails to explain the connection between Italy's embedded political culture & recent political changes. Schneider focuses on the influence of bureaucrats on institutional performance, & demonstrates that Brazil's deep power structure is not greatly impacted by changes in political regimes. S. Jameson