The way people think and act politically is not set in stone. People can and do change the fundamental cultural contours of their political situation. Their political culture does not only restrict imagination and action - it is also a resource for political creativity and invention. In Reinventing Political Culture, this resource is uncovered and explored. Analyzed as a tension between the power of culture and the culture of power, the concept of political culture is reinvented and applied to understanding the practice of people transforming their own political culture in very different circumstances. Three instances of such reinvention are closely examined: one historic, during the twilight of the Soviet empire; one actively in process and actively opposed, ‘the Obama revolution'; and one an apparent distant dream, the power of culture and the culture of power that would avoid ‘the clash of civilizations' in the Middle East. In accessible and engaging prose, Goldfarb clearly and forcefully presents students and scholars of sociology, comparative politics, and cultural studies with an original position on political culture, showing how the political cultures of our times pose not only grave dangers, but also opportunities for creative alternatives.

Conventional wisdom suggests that citizens in many countries have become disengaged from the traditional channels of political participation. Commentators highlight warning signs including sagging electoral turnout, rising anti-party sentiment, and the decay of civic organizations. But are these concerns justified? This book compares systematic evidence for electoral turnout, party membership, and civic activism in countries around the world and suggests good reasons to question assumptions of decline. Not only is the obituary for older forms of political activism premature, but new forms of civic engagement may have emerged in modern societies to supplement traditional modes. The process of societal modernization and rising levels of human capital are primarily responsible, although participation is also explained by the structure of the state, the role of agencies, and social inequalities.

This volume focuses on the issue of change in democratic politics in terms of experimental or actual innovations introduced either within political parties or outside the party system, involving citizen participation and mobilization. Including a wide and diverse range of alternatives in the organization of groups, campaigning, conducting initiatives and enhancing practices, they not only question the relevance of traditional institutions in representing citizens' values and interests, but also share a common goal which is precisely - and perhaps paradoxically - to reshape and invigorate representative democracy This book is of key interest to scholars and students of party politics, elections/electoral studies, social movement and democratic innovations and more broadly to comparative politics, political theory and political sociology.

This all-encompassing encyclopedia provides a broad perspective on U.S. politics, culture, and society, but also goes beyond the facts to consider the myths, ideals, and values that help shape and define the nation. Demonstrating that political culture is equally rooted in public events, internal debates, and historical experiences, this unique, three-volume encyclopedia examines an exceptionally broad range of factors shaping modern American politics, including popular belief, political action, and the institutions of power and authority. Readers will see how political culture is shaped by the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of Americans, and how it affects those things in return. The set also addresses the issue of American "exceptionalism" and examines the nation's place in the world, both historically and in the 21st century. Essays cover pressing matters like congressional gridlock, energy policy, abortion politics, campaign finance, Supreme Court rulings, immigration, crime and punishment, and globalization. Social and cultural issues such as religion, war, inequality, and privacy rights are discussed as well. Perhaps most intriguingly, the encyclopedia surveys the fierce ongoing debate between different political camps over the nation's historical development, its present identity, and its future course. By exploring both fact and mythology, the work will enable students to form a broad yet nuanced understanding of the full range of forces and issues affecting—and affected by—the political process.

Although the idea that politics is influenced by its cultural setting is so plausible as to be almost irresistible, political culture has remained a contested and controversial concept. Just what the cultural setting consists of and how its influence on politics is transmitted remain unclear and disputed. This book argues that the problem is insufficient attention to basic theoretical questions. Positivist political culture research based on attitude surveys, and the interpretivist alternative which explores meaningful context, despite their mutual antipathy share a neglect of these questions, while materialist and discursivist critiques of, and alternatives to, political culture research end up posing the very same questions. Resisting the specialization and sectarianism of much of political and social science, the book tackles head on the questions of what political culture is and how it works. It begins by arguing that we must explore the nature and dynamics of political culture. To do this it is necessary to reach beyond political science and reopen the interdisciplinary exchange in which political culture research was founded. The book reaches into the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Michael Polanyi for foundational arguments about the nature of culture, and into social, cognitive, and cultural psychology for findings about human motivation which are radical in their implications for political culture research and its methods. It develops a dualistic theory of political culture, and uses the two dimensions of practice and discourse in a new analysis of the otherwise mysterious causal dynamics of political culture. It provides an explanation of what has hitherto only been asserted: the role played by political culture in both political stability and political change. Thus it restores a rigorously argued concept of political culture to a central place in political science, and suggests an agenda for its future development.

The analysis of the formation processes and manifestations of political culture in the domain of international relations and organization lacks a concrete theoretical and methodological framework. However, the main theoretical and methodological deficits seem to be related to the need for a clear-cut definition of the concept itself as well as to the integration of political science methodological tools into the international institutional law debate. This book considers the basic theoretical and methodological requirements for the use of political culture as a conceptual tool in the field of international organization research. Moreover, it applies the core theoretical and methodological assumptions to three case-studies, namely, the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union, which are perceived as agents of distinct political cultures in the international system.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

The SAGE Handbook of Political Sociology offers a comprehensive and contemporary look at this evolving field of study. The focus is on political life itself and the chapters, written by a highly-respected and international team of authors, cover the core themes which need to be understood in order to study political life from a sociological perspective, or simply to understand the political world. The two volumes are structured around five key areas: PART 1: TRADITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES PART 2: CORE CONCEPTS PART 03: POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES AND MOVEMENTS PART 04: TOPICS PART 05: WORLD REGIONS This future-oriented and cross-disciplinary handbook is a landmark text for students and scholars interested in the social investigation of politics.

This book challenges the myth that individualism necessarily weakens commitments to the common good. It examines environmental and other activist groups in which individualism sometimes enhances political commitment. Rather than criticize individualism and favor a return to "traditional" values, Paul Lichterman examines the untraditional, personalized politics of many recent social movements and invites us to rethink common understandings of commitment, community, and individualism in a post-traditional world.

Undermined from above by economic globalization and European integration, and from below by the rise of identity politics, the French state has attempted to redefine its relationship to its citizens. Reinventing France examines the ways in which state action has endeavoured to promote social integration in an increasingly fragmented nation and has challenged traditional concepts of an indivisible Republic and universal citizenship rights in order to achieve the core republican ideals of freedom, equality and solidarity.