Political Culture and Democracy

Abstract

One of the first questions to which Almond’s newly-coined concept of political culture was applied was that of the relationship between political culture and democracy, and this has indeed continued to be a major area of political culture research. Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba’s The Civic Culture, published in 1963,¹ was the original entry into this field, and has remained a benchmark for much subsequent research. At the same time, it has provided an inviting target for criticism. Moreover, the substantial body of data it gathered has been utilized by other authors in arguments that diverge somewhat from Almond and Verba’s. These are good reasons for according The Civic Culture some prominence in the present chapter, but, in view of its familiarity, not yet perhaps sufficient ones. Our argument will be that the study attempts to combine what were termed in the Introduction comparative and sociological uses of political culture. Critics have not noticed this fact, and their critiques have in consequence been somewhat partial. The aim of this chapter is, however, not simply to provide a more complete analysis and critique of The Civic Culture. It is to illustrate the effects of what we will argue is a characteristic combination of sociological and comparative uses of political culture. A perspective will thereby be developed that assists in the evaluation of the literature, critical and otherwise, that in one way or another has been provoked by Almond and Verba’s study.