The Concept of Political Culture

Abstract

Although historians have frequently employed political culture in their writings, they often seem unaware of the long-standing controversy that has engaged social scientists regarding its theoretical grounding, its methods, and its substantive findings. Moreover, cultural historians who have pioneered new ways of looking at symbolic and expressive forms of power have tended to slight the more traditional dimensions of power—such as persisting elite hegemony and control of material resources—that ought not be excluded from the concept's domain. Historians would do well to attend more fully to the implications of political culture, especially its inherently comparative logic.