This is the first major European political science book to discuss the growing interdisciplinary field of 'cultural theory', proposing a coherent and viable alternative to mainstream political science. The authors argue that three elements - social relations, cultural bias and behavioural strategy - illuminate political questions at a level of analysis on any scale: from the household to the state; the international regime to the political party.
Author(s): M. Thompson
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 260
BOOK COVER......Page 1
HALF-TITLE......Page 2
TITLE......Page 5
COPYRIGNT......Page 6
CONTENTS......Page 7
TABLES......Page 9
FIGURES......Page 10
CONTRIBUTORS......Page 11
PREFACE......Page 15
1 CULTURAL THEORY AS POLITICAL SCIENCE......Page 16
From Newtonian to Blakean social science......Page 23
The Complete Typology......Page 25
The individual is a lump of misplaced concrete......Page 26
User-friendly Cultural Theory......Page 27
Preferences......Page 29
Organisations......Page 30
Political cultures......Page 31
Democracies......Page 33
Notes......Page 35
Part 1 PREFERENCES......Page 38
2 WHOSE BEHAVIOUR IS AFFECTED BY INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY?......Page 40
Four international rationalities......Page 42
The essence of international issues......Page 43
Governance of the international system and regimes......Page 45
Perceived feasibility of international cooperation......Page 46
Rules and procedures......Page 47
Proposition 2......Page 50
An illustration: the environmental protection of the river Rhine......Page 51
Notes......Page 53
Postmaterialism and Cultural Theory compared as theories First......Page 56
Theoretical traditions......Page 57
Framing assumptions......Page 60
Cultural change......Page 61
Culture and environmental concern......Page 63
The hypotheses......Page 64
Measuring cultures......Page 65
Predicting environmental concern......Page 66
Notes......Page 69
Introduction......Page 72
Three models of the individual and their implications for bias rejection......Page 73
Support and rejection of cultural biases......Page 74
Identifying combinations of cultural biases......Page 75
Biases and party preferences......Page 78
Accounting for party preference......Page 79
The role of rejection......Page 82
Consequences for Cultural Theory......Page 83
Complementing approaches to political behaviour......Page 84
Notes......Page 85
Part 2 ORGANISATIONS......Page 88
Cultural Theory and political parties: the possibilities......Page 90
The egalitarians......Page 92
The hierarchs......Page 95
The fatalists......Page 98
Conclusion......Page 100
Notes......Page 101
Fifteen years of conflict and its disappearance......Page 102
Traditional explanations and their shortcomings......Page 106
The learning problem......Page 108
Proposition 1......Page 109
Proposition 2......Page 110
Proposition 4......Page 111
Proposition 6......Page 112
Notes......Page 113
Elster’s Criteria......Page 114
Essential features of cultural theory......Page 118
An analysis of some examples......Page 121
Summary......Page 126
Notes......Page 127
Part 3 POLITICAL CULTURES......Page 130
8 CULTURAL BIASES AND NEW MEDIA FOR THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: CUI BONO?......Page 132
Communication and information bias......Page 133
Democratising teledemocracy......Page 135
Orwell or Athens? The wrong question......Page 138
Patterns of inspiration and support: answering the right question......Page 139
Applications inspired by and supportive of hierarchy......Page 141
Applications inspired by and supportive of egalitarianism......Page 143
Applications inspired by and supportive of individualism......Page 144
Notes......Page 146
Confusion amid the clarification......Page 148
From ways of life to political culture: The Cultural Theory two-step......Page 149
Varieties of pluralism......Page 150
Identifying typical political cultures......Page 151
Political cultures dominated by just one way of life......Page 152
Political cultures dominated by alliances......Page 153
Political cultures characterised by high levels of fatalism......Page 154
National political cultures in the European Union......Page 156
Notes......Page 160
Introduction......Page 164
Theoretical framework......Page 165
Teknologi Naevnet and ‘The Future of Private (Car) Transport’......Page 166
The TAB Project ‘Options for reducing the road system burden and for substitution of road traffic by more environmentally…......Page 170
STOA and ‘The Technological City. Ideas and Experiments in Urban Organisation of Mobility, Transport, Production and…......Page 171
Comparing the contents of the TAs......Page 173
Conclusion......Page 176
Notes......Page 178
Part 4 DEMOCRACIES......Page 180
11 IMAGES OF DEMOCRACY IN DANISH SOCIAL HOUSING......Page 182
Ways of life as ways of learning about decisions......Page 183
Images of democracy......Page 184
The governance of Danish social housing......Page 185
Meeting the challenge......Page 188
Notes......Page 193
12 THE CULTURAL CONDITIONS FOR DEMOCRACY AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSITIONAL SOCIETIES......Page 196
A Cultural Theory recipe for stable democracy......Page 197
Explaining stability and instability......Page 199
Democracy as institutionalised pluri-culturality......Page 202
Authoritarianism as institutionalised cultural exclusion......Page 203
Transition strategies......Page 205
The 1990 elections: a missed chance?......Page 206
The heaviness of the caudillos......Page 207
The heaviness of the external caudillos......Page 208
Strategies for mass mobilisation that take account of both weight and numbers......Page 210
Notes......Page 213
Circles of improvement......Page 216
The masking of the political by the technical......Page 218
Putting the plurality into pluralist theory......Page 219
Refreshing the parts old-style pluralism cannot reach......Page 222
Filling the void......Page 226
Civic responsiveness and the democratisation of the public sphere......Page 229
Notes......Page 231
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 232
INDEX......Page 250
