Managing Political Change by Irene L. Gendzier

Author:Irene L. Gendzier [Gendzier, Irene L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Development, Economic Development, Social Science, Developing & Emerging Countries
ISBN: 9780813300795
Google: KGeFAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: Avalon Publishing
Published: 1985-01-15T03:46:00+00:00

The Case of The Civic Culture

It is difficult to exaggerate the influence of Almond and Verba's The Civic Culture in affecting the political language and character of Political Development studies. The work integrated the basic elements of the new look in political science. It also articulated their expression in the new approach to democratic theory. In short, The Civic Culture was an ambitious undertaking. Based on a survey of some five thousand respondents in England, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the United States, it was designed to produce "a scientific study, under university auspices, of problems of democracy and political participation."50 What it offered was something more, an illustration of the conservative thrust of the elitist approach, the pitfalls of a conformist interpretation of political participation, and the limits of a psychological and sociopsychological interpretation of political action.

Several aspects of the work deserve particular consideration in the present context, as they demonstrate the consequences of such an approach for the interpretation of political change. The "civic culture," according to the authors, was "neither traditional nor modern but partaking of both; a pluralistic culture based on communication and persuasion, a culture of consensus and diversity, a culture that permitted change but moderated it."51 Its most advanced and successful historical examples were Great Britain, followed by the United States. Little was said of the Third World in this context, although the discussion of Italy and Mexico had something in common with subsequent analyses of Political Development in which Third World politics was viewed as underdeveloped.

Yet the authors of The Civic Culture were not indifferent to Third World states. They shared the global outlook of those who believed that this disparate region held the key to the future of East-West relations. It was in that connection that the political future of Third World nations was evoked. Such states, according to Almond and Verba, faced a difficult choice. They could turn either to democratic or to totalitarian systems. The former "offers the ordinary man the opportunity to take part in the political decision making process as an influential citizen; the totalitarian offers him the role of the 'participant subject.' Both modes have an appeal to the new nations, and which will win out—if indeed some amalgam of the two does not emerge—cannot be foretold."52 They continued with a description of "the open polity and the civic culture—man's discovery of a humane and conservative way to handle social change and participation," described as a Western phenomenon that might not so easily be transferred to non-Western regions.53 And then it was not clear, they noted, as to whether or not Third World regimes were so interested in acquiring this "humane and conservative way" of handling change. Some years later, Almond and Powell (1978) expressed a somewhat different view of the matter, but the underlying premises remained unchanged.54

What characterized The Civic Culture was not its particular reservations about Third World politics but its interpretation and recommendations with respect to political practice in the West. Situating the study in

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