Abstract
The speed at which social changes occur is largely dependent on whether a change in mentalities takes place primarily within generations according to patterns determined by class, ethnicity, or gender, or whether entire generations are the prime bearers of cultural change. The prospects for political stability in new democracies, as well as the prospects for moving from a non-civic to a civic culture are likewise deeply affected by the logic according to which individual cultural change proceeds. These are only some reasons why the relation between early socialization and later institutional changes is of such great importance. That institutions do affect culture in a generational perspective is hardly contested, but that says very little about the scope for individual change and tenacity, which is the major theoretical line of division.
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Notes
Agnis Balodis, 1986, “Baltutlämningen,” De första båtflyktingarna. En antologi om balterna i Sverige, Stockholm: Statens Invandrarverk.
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See Monika Ardelt, 2000, “Still Stable After All These Years? Personality Stability Theory Revisited,” Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 4, 392–405. Ardelt argues that earlier results on personality stability could be the effect of methodological artefacts to a considerable degree. In particular, she argues for the longitudinal investigation of the effect on personality of institutional change: “First, ideally, it would be most promising to study personality before and after unexpected, drastic changes in people’s social environments …” (401). Her preferred design resembles the one in this study, except for the fact that “before” had to be analytically constructed rather than empirically measured, which no doubt is a limitation.
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See Archie Brown and Jack Gray (eds.), 1977/79, Political Culture and Political Change in Communist States, London and New York, 265.
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© 2007 Li Bennich-Björkman
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Bennich-Björkman, L. (2007). Political Culture under Institutional Pressure. In: Political Culture under Institutional Pressure. Political Evolution and Institutional Change. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609969_6
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