Suchergebnisse

A survey conducted by "Centre for Socio-economic and Humanities Research" at the Kama Polytechnic Institute in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny in October 1999 represents a specific material for the analysis of age differences in the political culture within a particular area - a major industrial city of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Our class of models aims at explaining the dynamics of political attitude change by means of the dynamic changes in values, beliefs, norms and knowledge with which it is associated. The model constructs a political culture perspective over the relationship between macro and micro levels of a society and polity. The model defines the bonding mechanism as a basic mechanism of the political culture change by taking inspiration from the valence bonding theory in Chemistry, which has inspired the elaboration of the mechanisms and processes underlying the political culture emergence and the political culture control over the relationship between macro-level political entities and the micro-level individual agents. The model introduces operational definitions of the individual agent in political culture terms. The simulation model is used for the study of emergent political culture change phenomena based on individual interactions (emergent or upward causation) as well as the ways in which the macro entities and emergent phenomena influence in turn the behaviors of individual agents (downward causation). The model is used in the ongoing research concerning the quality of democracy and political participation of the citizens in the Eastern European societies after the Fall of Berlin Wall. It is particularly aimed at explaining the long-term effect of the communist legacy and of the communist polity concept and organization onto the political mentalities and behaviors of the citizens with respect to democratic institutions and political power. The model has major implications in political socialization, political involvement, political behavior, corruption and polity modeling.

Aaron Wildavsky has argued that it is theoretically more useful to think of political preferences as rooted in political culture than to entertain alternative bases such as schemas or ideologies. In the APSA presidential address in which he made his case, Wildavsky also advocated a program of research on political cultures, and welcomed "challenges and improvements." David Laitin accepts the invitation; he variously takes issue with Wildavsky's concept of political culture.

Abstract.This paper examines the existence of sub-State political cultures in Canada. In so doing it revisits research conducted by Richard Simeon and David Elkins into the existence of provincial political cultures in Canada. It reviews the evidence for provincial political cultures and examines recent data from the Canadian Election Study in an effort to determine whether attitudes towards government have changed. Second, it revisits the process by which sub-cultures are identified. Using data from the federal election profiles and the CES the paper identifies nine distinct regional variant cultures within Canada. These regional cultures possess different political attitudes and behaviours that cannot be explained by the existence of provincial boundaries.Résumé.Cet article examine l'existence de cultures politiques sous-étatiques au Canada. Il reprend, ce faisant, les recherches de Richard Simeon et David Elkins qui démontrent la réalité des cultures politiques provinciales au Canada. L'article reconsidère l'authenticité de l'existence des cultures provinciales et étudie les données récentes de l'Étude électorale canadienne pour tenter de déterminer si les attitudes politiques ont changé. Ensuite, il réexamine le processus d'identification des sous cultures . En utilisant les profils des circonscriptions fédérales et l'ÉÉC, l'article identifie neuf variantes régionales distinctes au Canada. Ces cultures régionales manifestent des attitudes et comportement distincts qui ne peuvent pas s'expliquer par l'existence des frontières provinciales.

THE EXISTENCE OF DISTINCT REGIONAL POLITICAL CULTURES WITHIN CANADA IS INVESTIGATED. USING A NATIONAL SAMPLE (N=2,600), SCALES MEASURING CITIZEN EFFICIENCY, TRUST IN GOVERNMENT, & POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT WERE CONSTRUCTED & TABULATED WITH LANGUAGE & PROVINCE. THEY WERE COMBINED INTO A TYPOLOGY OF 4 CITIZEN TYPES: (1) CITIZENS (TRUSTING & EFFICACIOUS), (2) DEFERENTIALS (TRUSTING BUT NOT EFFICACIOUS), (3) REBELS (EFFICACIOUS BUT NOT TRUSTING), & (4) ALIENATED (NEITHER TRUSTING NOT EFFICACIOUS). LARGE INTERPROVINCIAL VARIATIONS WERE FOUND, ESPECIALLY WITH TRUST & EFFICACY. BRITISH COLUMBIA HAD THE HIGHEST PROPORTION OF CITIZENS & REBELS, WHILE THE MARITIMES PROVINCES, & THE FRENCH-SPEAKING OUTSIDE QUEBEC, HAD THE LARGEST PROPORTIONS OF ALIENATED VOTERS. IN INVOLVEMENT, HOWEVER, THE MARITIMES RANKED HIGHER. SUCH STRIKING DIFFERENCES COULD FLOW FROM THE EXISTENCE OF DISTINCTIVE REGIONAL CULTURES, OR SIMPLY FROM THE FACT THAT THE PROVINCIAL POPULATIONS DIFFER FROM ONE ANOTHER IN SUCH SE CHARACTERISTICS AS EDUCATION, CLASS, INCOME, & UR/RU MAKEUP. A SERIES OF CONTROL VARIABLES WAS INTRODUCED TO SEE IF THESE WASHED OUT THE DIFFERENCES. IN SOME CASES, INTERREGIONAL DIFFERENCES ACTUALLY INCREASED. THE EFFECT OF CONTROL VARIABLES DIFFERED ACROSS REGIONS; IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, THE MC & THE WC DIFFERED LITTLE IN TRUST & EFFICACY, IN THE MARITIMES THEY DIFFERED SHARPLY. ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE CONFIRMED THAT BOTH REGION & THE SE FACTORS INDEPENDENTLY ACCOUNTED FOR VARIATIONS ALONG THE 3 DIMENSIONS. THE INTERPROVINCIAL DIFFERENCES IN BASIC POLITICAL ATTITUDES ARE A FUNCTION OF DIFFERENT CULTURES. VARIATIONS AMONG ENGLISH- SPEAKING PROVINCES ARE AT LEAST AS GREAT AS THE MORE COMMONLY NOTED DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH & FRENCH-SPEAKING CANADIANS. 17 TABLES. MODIFIED AA.

The authors discuss the significance of anthropological concepts in the analysis of political culture as carried out in both applied and theoretical studies of current political communications in transitional political processes. Drawing on a history of methodological and theoretical debates in political science and anthropology, the authors examine methodological issues of studying discourses of political memory as a symbolic representation of socio-cultural specifics of temporal dimensions of a given political culture. They emphasize the importance of describing and theoretically analyzing the role of political myths and symbols present in political memory in transition societies and point out that analysis of political myths as a symbiotic mechanism (or as a source of reproducing and delineating 'political passions') closely connected with symbolic practices of coercion highlights the role of culture in variability of political transition processes. They argue that a focus on political culture as a historically specific form of social memory allows one to examine differences in models of political culture within structures and practices of everyday life. Using an anthropologically oriented political analysis as a theoretical basis, the authors suggest a new theoretical approach to the study of contemporary political communications and argue for a need to develop new strategies of research of political culture in sociology and political science.

AbstractThis article draws on an emerging comparative literature indicating the significant effects that political systems can have on the deployment of penal power, and the ways they condition responses to crime and to criminal offenders. It explores two political‐cultural mechanisms that help account for variations in levels of punitiveness between countries. These mechanisms – called here as the insulation and autonomy effect and the populism disincentive effect– are embedded in jurisdiction‐specific political cultures and the structures that sustain them.

In "A Culturalist Theory of Political Change" in the September 1988 issue of this Review, Harry Eckstein argued that "a cogent, potentially powerful theory of political change can be derived from culturalist premises." But Herbert Werlin finds Eckstein's effort to accommodate culture theory to political change unsatisfactory. Werlin argues that politics in the sense of political engineering, rather than cultural changes, mainly accounts for transformations in political life. Eckstein responds, arguing that the political methods for inducing change are themselves culturally conditioned.