Political culture theory:

responses to theoretical challenges

Abstract

The article points out the main criticisms posed to the dominant stream of thought within political culture studies and offers a summary of culturalist theoreticians’ responses to their critics’ challenges. This dominant stream is understood to be represented by the group of studies inspired and influenced by the discussion which Almond and Verba launched in their 1963 classic TheCivic Culture. Concepts such as cultural heterogeneity, value change, and cultural rationality-all linked to this stream-support the affirmation that there has at least been a mitigation of criticisms concerning the equivocal nature of the relationship between political culture and political structure and of the liberal-democratic bias implicit in political culture studies.