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Two main themes have been emphasized in recent description and interpretation of English political behaviour. One theme traces the stability of our political system to a widespread attachment to the civic values of submission to authority and an intermittent popular participation. The other theme explains support (at least among the manual working class) for the Conservative party in terms of deference to a traditional elite and/or a pragmatic appraisal of that party's economic and welfare capabilities. Little attention has been paid to the validity of either interpretation or to the relations between them. Accordingly, this paper first reviews the evidence for both themes and attempts to relate them, and then introduces some new survey data to throwfurther light on this problematic subject.

The paper puts emphasis on the experience of cultural identity through
various social contexts: traditionalism, modernism and postmodernism. Special
attention is directed towards the analysis of the position of an individual,
and the social framework in which that individual creates his/her identity.
Analysis of different theoretical approaches reveals that the cultural
identity is a category which permanently changes, but we should not lose
sight of the fact that there are certain determinants which suggest that
cultural identity in traditional, modern and postmodern societies bears
certain similarities. In most scientific studies there is a claim that an
individual overcame his/her ontological connection to community and
dependence on it, and that reflexivity becomes the norm. However, if you go
deeper into the essence of social relations you can find that space for
individuality and free acting of an individual is freed from heteronomy as a
traditional form of behavior, but not freed from the strong influence of
market ideology that largely determines and affects human activities.
Therefore, an individual more and more consumes what already exits, while
less and less acts as an authentic creator. That dependence goes through a
metamorphosis, expressing itself in a different form and with different
intensity in different social contexts, but does not disappear.

The purpose of this work is to identify the features of mass consciousness in the aspect of traditionalism, which allows us to draw analogies of the content of mass consciousness of various historical periods. Mass consciousness is interpreted as one of the essential factors infl uencing the preservation of the manifestations of
traditionalism. The connection between the consciousness of the masses of traditional society and the society of the present time is noted not as a paradox, but as a regularity. The history of people is an activity aimed at adapting to social reality, to the specifi cs of social existence. In this provision, something fundamental is noted not only
in the approach to any historical epoch, but also in the approach to the study of the activity of the carrier of mass consciousness in any historical epoch. Functional aspects (inherited ideological and thinking schemes) of mass consciousness are clarifi ed and concretized taking into account the social context. The mass consciousness of both
traditional and modern society orients and directs people within the boundaries of their individual and group actions, reproducing traditional (archaic) norms, values, attitudes and at the same time producing potential changes in society. These are the reference ways of thinking, perception and reaction, transmitted from generation to generation
with the help of signs, symbols, myths, stereotypes. These include: the customs of everyday life; the Absolutization of Good and Evil; the syncretism of the triad individual — society — culture; the division of the world into permissible and forbidden; the preservation of the image of the motherland (home) unchanged; ideas about truth — truth and justice. Such constants of mass consciousness ensure not only adaptation to the system of norms and values accepted in a given society, but also the preservation of this system without entering into a confl ict relationship with it to develop new norms and values corresponding to changing conditions and circumstances. In conclusion,
methodological principles are recommended that can be used in the study of mass consciousness at any stage of the development of society.