Stylianos Ioannis Tzagkarakis

European Journal of Political Culture

ISSN 2784 - 0271 ISSN – L 2784 – 0271

Volume 1, Issue No.1 (March 2021), pp.20-22

Published: 30 March 2021

The Importance of Political Culture Theory and Research for Contemporary Political Science

Stylianos Ioannis Tzagkarakis

Department of Political Science

University of Crete

Greece

sttvaz@yahoo.gr

Τhe term “Political Culture” was first used at the end of the 18^th century by Herder, who used it in order to describe the political education as a mechanism for the political modernization of Germany, as well as by Russian historians (Brown, 1984). However, as a comprehensive term of political science, Political Culture was firstly used by Almond (1956) and Almond and Verba (1964), under the impact of functionalism and behaviorism. Thus, according to Almond and Verba (1964: 16) “political culture depends on the frequency of cognitive, affectual and valuable kinds of orientations in a political system, its inputs, its outputs as well as on the political actor”. Such orientations are viewed as cultural models which are cultivated and transferred through political socialization, which is fairly determined by a vast number of parameters.

Today, the questions of the political culture theory have become even more eminent as several new challenges and conditions have emerged. Thus, political culture is important for revealing the way opinions and stances towards specific phenomena have been developed and the role that diverse orientations have played. In this way, we can better form explanations towards phenomena such as populism which has largely emerged in several countries, but the explanation of their political and social acceptance is not so simple and could be find in political culture orientations. Here, we should note that political culture, especially since the early 1960s, is directly connected with political science and political culture theory as far as it connects culture with political behaviors which modulate the existing political framework of each context.

It should also be mentioned that political culture is crucial for the understanding of the parameters which influence the trends of political consensus or polarization and no-consensus in a political system. In order to explain the way consensus commonly prevails it is necessary to take into consideration the different dynamic features characterizing the proper aspects of the political context which allow for consensus or polarization. Hence, political culture theory and research could reveal such characteristics and offer new evidence to political science able to explain the political behavior in the present context, which is different from that of the 1960s, when Almond and Verba analyzed it.

All the above-mentioned considerations underline the importance of political culture theory and research for explaining political change phenomena. As already indicated, the increase of populism in several countries during the previous decade is a change which could be explained through empirical research (both qualitative and quantitative), and modeling, based on the existing political culture elements. For instance, Carolan (2020) studies populism in the USA aiming to reveal more profound characteristics of the American society behind those showed by Trump’s supporters. From this perspective, populism appears as a non-homogenous phenomenon which combines various characteristics of political culture. Moreover, studying the effects of political culture in contemporary public policies and governance, Chatterji, Roy and Chatterjee (2021) analyze the ways political culture affected the governance at local and central levels during the COVID-19 pandemics.

What do these seminal examples reveal? That the study of political culture in contemporary political science is still important and able to provide for the explanation of the foundation of political behavior as well as governance and political change phenomena. The use of diverse methods is always crucial for analyzing the multi-dimensional characteristics of a specific political culture. Indeed, as Fuchs (2007) indicate, political culture incorporates characteristics from the civic as well as political community. It thus indicates that their combined study at central and local levels of governance is essential for understanding the ways in which political culture influences the economic performance and democratic stability (Jackman & Miller, 1996).

Consequently, despite criticisms, political culture is indeed a unifying concept in political science (Chilton, 1988). In the contemporary political context, it remains a crucial field of research as it includes the analysis of patterns of political behavior, beliefs, ideologies, values, and concepts that affect governance, public policies, public administration, and political change. In an unstable era with multi-dimensional challenges (economic, sanitary, political populism, etc.) political culture is a promising field which could offer explanations, and evidence-based outcomes likely to become the lucrative ground for elaborating policy proposals towards efficiently addressing the contemporary challenges and threats. Thus, it is more than necessary for political science to expand research in this field not only for academic or theoretical reasons, but also as a means to connect political culture with evidence-based policy-making.

References

Almond, G. (1956). Comparative Political Systems. Journal of Politics, 18: 391-409.

Almond, G. & Verba, S. (1965). The Civic Culture. Boston: Little Brown.

Brown, A. (1984). Political Culture and Communist Studies. London: McMillan.

Carolan, M. (2020). ‘They say they don’t see color, but maybe they should!’ Authoritarian populism and colorblind liberal political culture. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 47 (7): 1445-1469.

Chatterji, T., Roy S. & Chatterjee, A. (2021). Global contagion and local response: the influence of centre–state relations and political culture in pandemic governance. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, DOI: 10.1080/23276665.2020.1870866

Chilton, S. (1988). Defining Political Culture. The Western Political Quarterly, 41 (3): 419-445.

Fuchs, D. (2007). The Political Culture Paradigm. In: R. J. Dalton and H. D. Klingemann (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jackman, R. W. & Miller, R. A. (1996). A Renaissance of Political Culture? American Journal of Political Science, 40 (3): 632-659.

Corresponding Author:

Dr. Stylianos Ioannis Tzagkarakis, Political Scientist (BA, MA, PhD), Teaching Fellow and Postdoctoral Researcher of the Department of Political Science, University of Crete, Greece. Researcher of the Centre for Political Research and Documentation (KEPET) of the University of Crete, General Secretary of the Hellenic Association of Political Scientists (HAPSc), Editor in Chief of HAPSc Policy Briefs Series, Member of the Steering Committee of the ECPR Political Culture Standing Group.

Contact Address: sttvaz@yahoo.gr

Copyright @ 2021, Stylianos Ioannis Tzagkarakis

European Journal of Political Culture Vol. 1(1): 20-22

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