Advisors and Co-Lecturers: Professors Andras Kovacs (ELTE) and Andrew Arato (New School for Social Research)
Spring Semester, 1996 Ethnic and Minority Studies Program, Institute of Sociology, ELTE

The study of political culture aims to coming to an understanding of the institutional and normative structures that make up the terrain on which social, cultural, and economic practices take place. But how and why should we study it? This question has become of greater importance in light of the collapse of the Soviet-type system. The necessity of the full-bodied understanding of the political culture of former eastern bloc countries cannot be exaggerated. While nationalism has brutally swept through some areas of the region, former communist parties have quietly stepped into power in others. Left and right are no longer valid variables in ascertaining, let alone understanding, the actual cleavage, interests, and identities that exist in countries undergoing radical and wide-scale transformation. That they may no longer be adequate to explain the political cultures of western democracies as well necessitates a rethinking of the categories employed and the theories that inform the way both classical and contemporary social science addresses - or does not address - the concept. This course aims to do just that

We will begin with classical and contemporary accounts of the political culture of democracy, namely, the American case, followed by modern theories of political culture. The second section of the course will disaggregate what we believe are the constituent components of democratic politics and cultures. The final section will focus more specifically on the problem of transitions fro authoritarian rule and democratic consolidation from a political cultural perspective.

Students will be required to read all assigned readings and to participate in class discussions. Each student will also be required to hand in a 3-5 page essay (due no later than week 9) as well as a final term paper. The purpose of the short essay is to serve as a vehicle to begin writing about the issues raised in class and to demonstrate to the instructor the respective interests of the student. This short essay may be written as a project for the final essay, which will be due on May 31st.