Political Culture (Almond/Verba 1963/65) Measurement and Theory of Democratic Attitudes Intro Recap Almond/Verba Intro Summary Measuring attitudes (cid:73) Attitudes (cid:73) Disposition to evaluate (political) object (cid:73) Possibly constructed on the fly (cid:73) Interviewing (cid:73) Still most important instrument for measuring attitudes (cid:73) A social exchange (cid:73) Survey questions/questionnaire 1. Understand question 2. Collect information from memory 3. Combine considerations 4. Map result to categories (cid:73) Weak/strong satisficing (subsumes most problems) (cid:73) Good surveys/questions (cid:73) Reduce cognitive/social costs (cid:73) Use social norms to get optimal results MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(1/11) Intro Recap Almond/Verba Intro Summary The ’Civic Culture’ as a research program (cid:73) Published 1963/65 (cid:73) But based on data from the 40s/50s (cid:73) Five countries (cid:73) Part of the 1950s ’Behavioural Revolution’ (cid:73) Attitudes + behaviour of ordinary people (cid:73) Not interested in deeds of ’Great Men’ (cid:73) Not much interested in institutions → backlash (cid:73) Part of modern political sociology (cid:73) Electoral behaviour (cid:73) ’Unconventional’ modes of participation (cid:73) Changing value orientations (cid:73) Social/attitudinal preconditions of democracy MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(2/11) Intro Context Almond/Verba ConceptsandTheory Summary Findings A crisis of democracy? (cid:73) Failed in most of CEE, but that was expected (cid:73) Germany, Italy (North) different (cid:73) Liberal constitutions (cid:73) Economic development (cid:73) Efficient public administration, schools (cid:73) Spread of Communism (cid:73) Failure of democracy in most de-colonised countries (cid:73) (later on: ungovernability in the West) (cid:73) Search for factors at the micro-level MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(3/11) Intro Context Almond/Verba ConceptsandTheory Summary Findings Political Culture (cid:73) The distribution of attitudes towards political objects (cid:73) Nominally: a macro-concept (cid:73) Completely reducible to micro-features (cid:73) Songs, books, symbols etc. not relevant for Almond/Verba (cid:73) Famous three/four ideal types MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(4/11) Intro Context Almond/Verba ConceptsandTheory Summary Findings Attitudes (cid:73) Mode (cid:73) cognitions (cid:73) affects (cid:73) evaluations (cid:73) Objects (cid:73) Policies and Decisions (cid:73) Authorities (cid:73) Roles and Structures (cid:73) Dimensions (cid:73) input (cid:73) output (cid:73) political system as a whole (cid:73) own political role MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(5/11) Intro Context Almond/Verba ConceptsandTheory Summary Findings Ideal types system input output self parochial 0 0 0 0 subject 1 0 1 0 participant 1 1 1 1 0 no attitudes present 1 attitudes present (positive or negative) MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(6/11) Intro Context Almond/Verba ConceptsandTheory Summary Findings Congruence of culture/structure allegiance apathy alienation cognitive + + + affective + 0 - evaluative + 0 - + positive (in which sense) 0 neutral/ambivalent - hostile/negative MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(7/11) Intro Context Almond/Verba ConceptsandTheory Summary Findings Assumptions (cid:73) Orientations are durable (acquired through socialisation) (cid:73) Misfit between structure and culture (cid:73) Crisis (cid:73) Normally, structure (=regime) will change (cid:73) Real culture as mix of ideal types (cid:73) Participant culture → overload (cid:73) Best for democracy: civic culture (cid:73) Small group of active democratic citizens (cid:73) Majority of benevolent subjects (cid:73) Some parochial orientations ok MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(8/11) Intro Context Almond/Verba ConceptsandTheory Summary Findings Indicators (cid:73) Behaviours: voting, signing petitions etc. (cid:73) Political attitudes (cid:73) National pride and its sources (cid:73) Performance of political institutions (cid:73) Political interest and knowledge (cid:73) Support for alternative regime types (cid:73) Values (cid:73) Efficacy (cid:73) Political trust and alienation (cid:73) Sources and correlates (cid:73) (Social) trust and isolation (cid:73) Perception of social/political conflict MeasurementandTheoryofDemocraticAttitudes Almond/Verba(9/11)