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Title:
Cultural Contributions
to Explaining Institutional Form, Political Change, and Rational Decisions.
Subject(s):
COMPARATIVE
government; CULTURE
Source:
Comparative
Political Studies, Oct99, Vol. 32 Issue 7, p862, 32p, 1 diagram
Author(s):
Lockhart, Charles
Abstract:
Relying on culture
as an important explanatory variable is regarded with skepticism by many
contemporary
political scientists.
Yet, doubts about culture's usefulness rest in large part on false perceptions
of various sorts.
These misunderstandings
relegate an important explanatory variable to the social science scrap
heap.
Accordingly,
the author engages in three tasks. First, selected prominent arguments
for culture's lack of
explanatory
usefulness are discussed. Second, it is demonstrated how at least one conceptualization
of culture,
Mary Douglas
and Aaron Wildavsky's grid-group theory, overcomes aspects of these difficulties
and contributes
to explaining
institutional form and political change. Third, it is argued that grid-group
theory contributes
significantly
to both institutional analysis and rational choice theory. Grid-group theory
augments each of these
latter two approaches
and, more important, reveals complementary aspects, linking these modes
of analysis
together as
mutually supportive elements of a more inclusive explanatory scheme. [ABSTRACT
FROM AUTHOR]
AN:
2301872
ISSN:
0010-4140
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Best Part
Political Studies, October 1999
CULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO EXPLAINING INSTITUTIONAL FORM,
POLITICAL CHANGE, AND RATIONAL DECISIONS
Relying on culture as an important explanatory variable is regarded
with skepticism by many contemporary political scientists.
Yet, doubts about culture's usefulness rest in large part on false
perceptions of various sorts. These misunderstandings relegate
an important explanatory variable to the social science scrap heap.
Accordingly, the author engages in three tasks. First, selected
prominent arguments for culture's lack of explanatory usefulness are
discussed. Second, it is demonstrated how at least one
conceptualization of culture, Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky's grid-group
theory, overcomes aspects of these difficulties
and contributes to explaining institutional form and political change.
Third, it is argued that grid-group theory contributes
significantly to both institutional analysis and rational choice theory.
Grid-group theory augments each of these latter two
approaches and, more important, reveals complementary aspects, linking
these modes of analysis together as mutually
supportive elements of a more inclusive explanatory scheme.
Numerous cultural approaches contend in comparative politics; political
science generally; and related fields such as
anthropology, sociology, and social psychology.(n1) Furthermore, cultural
approaches have attracted a range of criticism. In
this article I defer to the fine work of others with respect to surveys
of cultural approaches and some ranges of criticism
(Dittmer, 1977; Lane, 1992; Ross, 1997). My own criticism is focused
on matters of particular relevance to my positive agenda:
showing how one version of political culture theory, grid-group theory
(Douglas, 1982a; Thompson, Ellis, & Wildavsky, 1990),
helps to explain institutional form and political change and fosters
complementary linkages between political culture theory,
institutional analysis, and rational choice theory in comparative politics.
THE CASE AGAINST CULTURAL EXPLANATIONS
Three criticisms hold particular relevance for this agenda. In the narrowest,
scholars argue with features of the "first wave" of
postwar American political culture studies (Almond, 1956; Almond &
Coleman, 1960; Almond & Powell, 1966; Almond &
Verba, 1963; Pye & Verba, 1965). These studies promoted an "allegiant
participant" ideal that the United States resembled
more closely than other societies (Lijphart, 1984). Furthermore, the
functionalist orientation that these studies adopted toward
political development had a system-preserving bias (LaPalombara, 1987).
Two broader and deeper deficiencies have been attributed to theories
of political culture generally. First, many scholars regard
institutional form as fundamental. Institutionalists are skeptical
of causal linkages between culture and its alleged consequences
(Orloff & Skocpol, 1984) and origins (Hall, 1986, p. 34) because
for them human activity inevitably fits the procedures of the
institutions that fill persons' lives. Persons are less creatures of
choice than of habit and duty, honoring the obligations of their
institutional niches (March & Olsen, 1989). These scholars commonly
view culture as insubstantial and residual (Berliner,
1988; Coleman, 1990; Lowi, 1984) and hold that theories of political
culture lack promise for developing political science.
Second, scholars often argue that cultural explanations cannot account
for political change (Johnson, 1982; Steinmo, 1994).
Rogowski (1974) offers an incisive statement of this position (pp.
3-17). His argument against cultural explanation rests on a
critique of the conception of socialization associated with first-wave
studies. This conception of "cumulative socialization" is
concisely detailed by Eckstein (1988), who believes that early learning
acts as a "filter" for later learning (pp. 790-791). So
earlier learning becomes deeply rooted and resilient to change. Furthermore,
these filters help to construct orientations that fit
various pieces of learning into larger coherent patterns. In this view,
culture amounts to established patterns of attending to, and
interpreting, a complex ambiguous world. Such cultures carry inertia
that makes rapid adjustment unlikely (Eckstein, 1988, p.
796).
Articulating a theme echoed by others recently (March & Olsen, 1989),
Rogowski doubts that early learning is crucial. He
draws on German experience in advocating this view. Extensive support
for the Nazi regime in the late 1930s was generally
attributed to authoritarian cultural orientations among Germans. Yet,
by the early 1970s, the Federal Republic had acquired a
quarter-century's experience as a democracy with broad popular support.
Because he sees no significant intergenerational
differences in this support, Rogowski concludes that cultural explanations
of this change run contrary to the first-wave's
emphasis on the importance of early learning and are thus ad hoc. Rogowski's
analysis pits culture against rational choice
theory, which portrays persons as adept at adjusting behavior to realize
their interests under shifting circumstances.
These two deeper reservations with theories of political culture portray
them at odds with widely practiced contemporary forms
of political explanation: institutional analysis and rational choice
theory. If these claims were accurate, culture would likely hold
little value for the development of comparative political studies.
But it is intuitively unreasonable to think that culture is irrelevant
to institutional development and a theory of instrumental preferences.
How do persons know what form their institutions should
take or what values, objectives, and interests their instrumental choices
should realize if not through culture? Following Eckstein
(1997), I argue that social science is a science of culture. A new
entrant in the field of conceptualizations of culture, grid-group
theory, surmounts many of the limitations associated with previous
theories of political culture.(n2)
SURMOUNTING LIMITATIONS ATTRIBUTED TO THEORIES OF POLITICAL CULTURE
AN INTRODUCTION TO GRID.GROUP THEORY
Grid-group theory was conceived in sociology (Durkheim, 1897/1951),
refined in cultural anthropology (Evans-Pritchard,
1940; Douglas, 1978, 1982a, 1982b, 1986, 1992), and recently advanced
and applied in political science and related areas
(Coyle & Ellis, 1994; Ellis, 1993; Holling, 1979; Schwarz &
Thompson, 1990; Thompson, Ellis, & Wildavsky, 1990). The
theory explains how persons derive a limited range of answers to basic
social questions such as: How does the world work?
What are humans really like? To whom am I accountable (Wildavsky, 1994).
Grid-group theorists argue that persons' answers
to these questions produce orientations toward two basic social dimensions:
legitimacy of external prescription (grid) and
strength of affiliation with others (group).(n3) The theory thus helps
to fill a notorious void in the social sciences (Becker, 1976,
p. 133) by explaining how distinctive social-relations preferences
are formed as consequences of acquiring various grid and
group positions (Schwartz & Thompson, 1990, p. 49; see below: pp.
870-871). The range of actual social practice is
constrained because only four general ways--each admitting some variations--of
responding to these questions are socially
viable.(n4) Preferences for various patterns of social relations prompt
supporting justifications or cultural biases and vice versa.
Together, preferences and justifications form distinctive ways of life
or cultures (see Figure 1).
For instance, low tolerance for external prescription, reinforced by
weak feelings of group membership, produces an
individualistic way of life organized largely by self-regulation among
voluntary contract-based networks of persons. Promoting
such a way of life among persons perceived as self-interested, with
roughly equal broad competencies such as rationality, is one
purpose of Smith's Wealth of Nations. Increasingly strong feelings
of group affiliation together with weak prescription entail a
way of life that grid-group theorists call egalitarian. From this perspective,
broadly equal humans, unmarred by natural flaws
destructive of social harmony, prefer to organize into small groups
that reach collective decisions through discussions designed
to produce consensus. This process is reminiscent of Rousseau's descriptions
of the social ideal in The Social Contract. High
feelings of group affiliation in conjunction with perceptions legitimizing
strong external prescription create a realm of hierarchy. In
this view, unequal humans with various social shortcomings that require
improvement through institutional guidance are arrayed
in vertical collectives. The ideal polis portrayed by Plato in The
Republic illustrates this way of life. Weak feelings of group
affiliation, intersecting with perceptions of external direction, elicit
a way of life that grid-group theorists call fatalism. The
unhappy combination of recognizing constraint by others but not feeling
part of any broader social collective predisposes fatalists
to social avoidance rather than interaction. As a consequence of avoidance,
fatalists rarely write political theory; their views
have, however, been well portrayed by others (Banfield, 1958; Douglas,
1996, pp. 93-94; Mars, 1982, pp. 66-69; Turnbull,
1972).(n5)
Grid-group theorists argue that all four ways of life are present in
varying proportions in all societies.(n6) Similarly to the
interaction of different amino acids in biological systems, each way
of life provides services for the others that they cannot create
for themselves. Societies thus tend to be "multicultural" in this sense.
Sharp differences in the historical contingencies that
societies face contribute importantly to variations in the relative
influence of rival cultures among them. It is difficult to imagine, for
instance, the individualism of Hobbes' claim that, when the sovereign's
directives nullify the basis for his authority (rescuing one
from the perpetual threat of violent death), one's obligation may be
set aside gaining much credence among the encircled
continental Germans. Nearly perpetual rivalries among early German
principalities and the later encirclement of Germanic
territory by states harboring security fears and revanchist aspirations
virtually assured an influential position for the culture of
hierarchy in German society. Even in the highly individualistic United
States, fears for internal order arising from the Great
Depression and external security prompted by the Second World War contributed
to greater influence for hierarchy and the
construction of a larger more active American state across the late
1930s and early 1940s.
Individualism is a culture more applicable to societies relatively insulated
from severe security concerns. Low-grid cultures were
initially better represented in what became the United States as a
consequence of early immigrants fleeing various aspects of
hierarchy (Lipset, 1990). Thereafter, the ready availability of real
property afforded greater realization of the practices of the
liberal theorists than was possible in Europe, and all cultures in
the American colonies found some mutual accommodation in
variations of representative government and civic virtue. The Revolutionary
War further depleted and demoralized the ranks of
hierarchists. Subsequently, the prevailing predispositions of individualists
were "crystallized" or institutionalized in a new
Constitution, and relative isolation from other powerful societies
helped individualists retain a dominant, although (as I discuss
below) not a monopoly, position across much of American history.
Although the peculiarities of the historical contingencies that societies
confront influence the specific character of their policy
responses, grid-group theory's cultures have distinctive predispositions
with respect to institutional design. The characteristic
institutional preferences of rival ways of life suggest that the sharp
distinction that Lowi (1984) and other structuralists draw
between culture and structure is misguided. Instead, the two realms
have a symbiotic relationship; culture is an important source
for the formation and sustenance of social institutions and vice versa.
MUST CULTURAL THEORIES PLAY FAVORITES?
I begin my argument that grid-group theory's concept of culture is less
susceptible to problems frequently associated with
theories of political culture by returning to the two controversial
features of the first-wave studies that I mentioned above. First,
grid-group theory includes inherent safeguards against global favoritism
of one culture. Each of the four rival ways of life makes
distinctive socially valuable contributions to the multicultural societies
that they comprise. As J. S. Mill (On Liberty) suggests,
individualistic influence is crucial for the development and sustenance
of individual rights. Persons armed with these rights have
produced unprecedented degrees of one vision of social progress in
some Western societies. This vision employs personal
liberty and market (efficiency)-driven technological progress to realize
economic prosperity. This combination of institutions is
unique to individualism (Olson, 1993).
Hierarchists, for instance, focus on other social goods and are especially
concerned with the creation and preservation of
expertise and order. Particularly when spurred by historical contingencies
that pose severe threats, hierarchists are capable of
remarkable feats of social mobilization such as Stalin's industrialization
drive (Lindblom, 1977) or the development efforts
launched by the Meiji Restoration (Johnson, 1982). So hierarchists
may sponsor more social progress than Mill was inclined to
grant. But liberty stemming from individual rights and market-based
concern for economic efficiency are not the institutions that
provide hierarchical development. Instead, hierarchical social development
is guided by a master plan devised by societally
recognized experts. From this perspective, a market-based process,
driven by the countless decisions of persons exercising
liberty, is too haphazard and chaotic.
Egalitarians do not value either of the preceding conceptions of development.
For them, social progress is defined in terms of
achieving social circumstances (ideally, small-scale groupings) that
facilitate person-respecting social solidarity (Titmuss, 1971).
Both the individualists' markets and the hierarchists' bureaucracies
are apt to fall short of recognizing the peculiar capacities of all
persons, relegating those whose skills enjoy little market demand or
fit poorly with the direction chosen by society's recognized
experts to the fringes of social life. The inherent stratifying effects
of markets and bureaucracies create a central point of
contention for egalitarians who strive to reduce status differentials
among persons and to build senses of self-esteem, caring, and
inclusive social equality.(n7)
When society is confronted by particular historical contingencies, one
of these cultures and its characteristic social institutions
may be more important to societal viability than others (Lockhart &
Franzwa, 1994). For example, an extensive centrally
directed mobilization for development was probably crucial in preventing
Japan from experiencing the sort of subjugation and
dismemberment that China suffered in the late 19th century. But grid-group
theory allows its practitioners to be evenhanded in
recognizing all four cultures as sources of potentially crucial social
contributions.
Second, for grid-group theorists societal viability is an unintended
byproduct of the activities of adherents of distinctive ways of
life. In contrast to many other political culturalists, they argue
that the "system" that cultural adherents strive to maintain is their
own way of life rather than multicultural society. Individualists seek
to implant their favored institutions more thoroughly
throughout society, and the adherents of other cultures have similar
objectives. The inevitable result of this intercultural, but
intrasocietal, conflict is social change as issues raised by historical
contingencies favor one culture and then another. If one
culture is highly dominant--hierarchy in the Soviet Union--the pace
of change may be slow. But as we have recently witnessed,
possibilities for innovation will eventually increase as historical
contingencies afford improved opportunities to other cultures. The
adherents of each culture, then, strive perpetually to reshape society
more thoroughly in their own image.
IS CULTURE RESIDUAL?
I now examine, in turn, how grid-group theory allays each of the two
deeper concerns that many scholars voice with respect to
cultural explanation. Culture's centrality to social explanation depends
on how it is conceived. As Eckstein (1988) laments, "The
term culture, unfortunately, has no precise, settled meaning in the
social sciences" (p. 801). In part, grid-group theorists conceive
of culture as the beliefs and values with which various factions justify
their rival ways of life (Thompson et al., 1990, pp. 1-38).
These cultural biases are based on beliefs about the natural and social
environments that rest ultimately on experience,
particularly childhood and adolescent socialization.(n8) Distinctive
conceptions of humans follow from specific beliefs about the
world. Together, these beliefs about humans and their world locate
persons with respect to the grid and group dimensions and
spawn preferences for specific patterns of social relations.
But grid-group theorists also recognize cultures in the distinctive
institutions that arise from these social-relations preferences
(Douglas, 1986; Katznelson, 1997, pp. 105-106).(n9) This theory illuminates
tighter, more specific relations between disparate
constrained sets of practical objectives and interests that rival clusters
of beliefs and values foster and the distinctive institutions
that embody these sets than other theories of political culture. This
characteristic enables theorists to capture key features of
persons' political worlds more effectively. Thus, grid-group theory
generates clearer, more easily measurable concepts than
alternative theories of political culture. For instance, individualists
perceive a bountiful and resilient natural (Locke, Second
Treatise, chap. 5) and social (Nozick, 1974) world. They also view
humans as self-interested and equal in broad capacities.
These humans are thus properly motivated and sufficiently capable to
master their own fates in a cornucopian environment.
Accordingly, individualists evince low-grid preferences, relying primarily
on self-regulation among persons. Government, with its
inherent coercion, should be limited. They reveal their low-group position
in preferences for working through networks of
persons linked by voluntary contractual relations rather than through
ascribed groups.
Egalitarians, in contrast, see a fragile environment. Not only is nature
subject to depredation but social contexts--the inner
city--are easily perverted as well. Egalitarians believe that humans
are naturally benign in their motives and broadly equal in both
basic capacities and needs (Gewirth, 1978), thus fitting with this
delicate environment. Yet, humans are easy prey for destructive
social stratification. Egalitarians believe that by undoing natural
human equality, stratification creates arrogance in the dominant
and resentment in the dominated, perverting in the process the natural
goodness of all. Accordingly, egalitarians exhibit a
high-group position, preferring to deal with the hazards posed by fragile
environments through the collective resources of
close-knit groups that share a limited material bounty fairly equally--exemplified
by the aphorism "live simply so that others may
simply live" or as Schumacher (1973) had it, "small is beautiful."
These groups are ideally relatively small and manifest their
low-grid position by reaching collective decisions through open discussion
resulting in consensus (Downey, 1986; Zisk,
1992).(n10)
Hierarchists believe in more complex tolerant/perverse environments.
Both the natural and social worlds are sufficiently robust to
support some exploitation, but if humans press too hard, disaster will
follow. Figuratively, humans live on mesas, not needing to
worry about minor variations of the table-top terrain, but having to
stay clear of the encircling cliffs. Experts in various matters
are required to discern crucial natural and social boundaries not equally
evident to everyone as well as for ascertaining how
humans should adjust their behavior in conformity with these limits.
For this high-grid culture, then, many of the obvious
interpersonal differences in specific talents that low-grid individualists
and egalitarians believe to be morally and socially
inconsequential take on significance. Hierarchists' high-group position
appears in their preference for organizing societies into
vertically arrayed collectives. High-grid preferences appear in the
way these institutions bring experts and ordinary persons
together, the former providing the dual services of education and social
control for the latter. Authorities thus occupy ordinary
persons with sanctioned activities, simultaneously improving their
lives and enabling them to contribute more appropriately to
society.(n11)
So persons draw on their cultures not only to interpret the world (North,
1995, p. 17; Scott, 1985, p. xvii) but also to shape it
(Ross, 1997, p. 64), building distinctive institutions that realize
their rival beliefs and values. Their perceptions of matters such as
the world about them, their fellow humans, and the forms of social
relations appropriate for these humans under such conditions
provide crucial guidance for institutional development. I develop this
thesis by drawing on two examples--one American, the
other German--of persons employing their cultural beliefs and values
to shape institutions in distinctive predictable ways.(n12)
Late 18th-century colonists in North America worked their way through
several governmental variations. Dominion status in an
empire and a loose confederation of local popularly elected legislatures
were preferred by hierarchists and egalitarians,
respectively. For instance, the writings of Jonathan Boucher and Thomas
Paine provide prototypical examples of hierarchical
and egalitarian views on humans and their world, respectively (Levy,
1992, pp. 86-91,73-80). Boucher was as well an
implacable advocate of remaining with England, whereas Paine worked
indefatigably for local legislatures. These two men are
typical of others in terms of their associating empire with hierarchy
and limited local government with egalitarianism (Main, 1964;
Wood, 1969).
But these options were successively challenged and overcome by the Revolution
and the replacement of the Articles of
Confederation with a new Constitution. This Constitution was furthered
by a coalition between hierarchists and individualists.
The former, having lost on the issue of dominion, found the Articles
incapable of delivering the security and order they desired
and sought improved circumstances through a coalition with some individualists
who, following egalitarian attacks on specific
forms of property, shared important practical objectives and interests
with hierarchists (Beard, 1913/1965). Political-economic
elites' disaffection with life under the Articles afforded Madison
the opportunity for suspending existing institutions and creating
innovative alternatives that realized the Lockean values, objectives,
and interests prominent in his education (Ketcham, 1971,
chaps. 1-2). As Madison's appeals for ratification of the Constitution
(Federalist, 10 and 51) reveal, its separation of powers
defines the form of governing institutions favored by those whose views
of self-interested human nature and visions of a bountiful
human condition construct the grid-group position of individualism.
His unusual scheme of checks and balances is rarely
duplicated outside the exceptionally individualistic United States.
Rohrschneider's (1994) study of Berlin's united parliament also clearly
reveals how cultural values and the related practical
objectives and interests that derive from them shape institutions.
Rorhschneider finds that members of parliament (MPs) from the
former West Berlin conceive of democracy differently than MPs from
the former East Berlin. In contrast to the individual-rights
version of democracy favored by western MPs, eastern MPs adhere to
an egalitarian view of democracy relying heavily on
plebiscitarian procedures and relatively equal material distribution.
Furthermore, parliamentary experiences refine views arising
from MPs' early socialization (Rohrschneider, 1994, p. 932). So the
institutions in which persons spend their lives shape their
beliefs and values; institutions form and sustain cultures.
But it does not follow that culture is residual, for there is another
causal loop to this process. The institutions that socialized
Rohrschneider's MPs--largely to allegiance in the West and to opposition
in the East where few current Berlin MPs have close
ties to the former German Democratic Republic (GDR)--were constructed
through processes involving considerable
extrasocietal influence designed to support particular beliefs and
values. External powers helped to shape the institutions of the
Federal Republic and the GDR roughly in the images of individualism
and hierarchy, respectively. The United States, whose
dominant culture disapproved of hierarchy as the preeminent source
for the Federal Republic's Basic Law, constructed--with
sympathetic Germans--a competitive parliamentary democracy and market
economy. In the East, the Soviets--with sympathetic
Germans--created distinctive hierarchical institutions, embodying the
Soviet belief in a society led by an expert elite toward an
improved historical era. Although the relatively egalitarian eastern
MPs in the current Berlin parliament resist hierarchical means,
their conceptions of democracy nonetheless reveal a shared high-group
position that the GDR's institutions surely helped to
shape. For egalitarian eastern MPs, individualism is sullied by both
its general association with personal greed and the complicity
of its industrial adherents with the Nazis. So, individualistic and
high-group cultures formed and sustained the institutions of the
Federal Republic and the GDR, respectively.
Furthermore, the democratic institutions of the new united state (Land)
of Berlin are likely to be somewhat different from those
that characterized West Berlin in the past. Democrats from western
Berlin will persist in attempting to realize democracy through
greater protection of various individual rights. But their newly arrived
democratic colleagues from eastern Berlin will strive to
develop democracy by incorporating sometimes compatible, but often
contradictory, efforts to let "the people" decide and to
effect greater economic redistribution. This flow of causation, through
which cultures shape institutions, is no more residual than
the flow through which institutions acculturate persons.
This point does not address Hall's (1986) concerns as to where and how
persons acquire cultures (p. 34). I cannot elaborate
this matter sufficiently here, but there is no mystery about the general
answer (Lockhart, 1998, chap. 2). Briefly, if we examine
the process of basic socialization (learning about becoming a person),
it is clear that in the process of growing up, persons
acquire beliefs and values that identify them as adherents of one or
another of grid-group theory's cultures. The broad
fundamental issues on which grid-group theory focuses (does the social
environment present opportunities or threats, are humans
relatively equal or unequal, is centralized expertise preferable to
a grassroots consensus) make this acquisition virtually inevitable.
This process is distinct from the adult professional socialization
(learning a role) that March and Olsen (1989) view as influential
in explaining the preferences of persons who compose political institutions.
As Madison's activities show, March and Olsen's
narrow focus leaves unanswered why adults sometimes discard the institutions
in which they live and create others in their place.
I close this section by responding to a related objection to cultural
explanations raised by contemporary institutionalists. March
and Olsen (1989) find culturalists' claims about the influence of exogenous
socialization unpersuasive (pp. 40-41). That is, how
can socialization that political elites acquire in early life influence
their actions in the professional institutions of adult life?
Grid-group theory questions the boundaries applied in both first-wave
political socialization and contemporary institutional
analysis. The former tended to define political socialization narrowly
(e.g., party affiliation). Grid-group theorists argue that
broader forms of learning--How extensive are the opportunities afforded
by the social environment? How capable are humans
of mastering their own fates? What institutions are suited for various
worlds and humans?--hold political implications that carry
over into a broad range of adult activities.
Contemporary institutional analysts also perceive varying life experiences
as too compartmentalized. Why should answers that
are acquired in adolescence to the broad social questions in the previous
paragraph not carry over into varying social contexts in
later life? Self-selection provides an obvious transfer mechanism.
Hierarchists are more likely to choose careers in the military
services and the Catholic Church than individualists or egalitarians.
In turn, individualists are more likely to succeed as
entrepreneurs than less flexible hierarchists and less materially motivated
egalitarians. And contemporary American social
workers are more apt to be adherents of one of the high-group cultures
(egalitarianism under Aid to Families with Dependent
Children [AFDC], more hierarchical under Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families [TANF]) than individualists. Professional
experience routinely reinforces and refines orientations stemming from
early socialization. So, small businesspersons may
become progressively less inclined to accept what they see as government
interference in market activities. But early socialization
to individualism likely contributes to persons' developing careers
in small business.
IS CULTURE CAPABLE OF EXPLAINING POLITICAL CHANGE?
Tighter linkages between rival sets of beliefs and values and the distinctive
institutions they construct create clearer indices of
culture. These indices contribute, in turn, to more empirically testable
propositions (Coughlin & Lockhart, 1998; Dake &
Wildavsky, 1990; Ellis & Thompson, 1997; Grendstad, 1995; Grendstad
& Selle, 1997). I now extend earlier applications of
grid-group theory by employing it in the explanation of political change.
According to this theory, culture arises from
experience, and earlier work applying the theory to this task argued
that historical contingencies change cultural biases through
surprise. That is, the world no longer works the way one's culture
predicts--for example, individualists' faith that conscientious
effort will be rewarded (Thompson et al., 1990, pp. 69-93). In response
to the Great Depression, for instance, some persons
who had considered themselves self-reliant recognized that new social
circumstances left them dependent on help from more
active public institutions.(n13) Their shift toward the high-group
cultures supported Roosevelt's efforts to build a more active
state. As their beliefs about the world changed, so did their views
of humans and their preferences with respect to institutions. As
Richard Nixon later remarked, "I am now a Keynesian" (Silk, 1972, p.
14).
This is the sort of change that Eckstein (1988) argues political culture
theory precludes (p. 796). Grid-group theory is less
restrictive. Two points are pertinent to a clarification of differences.
First, as I shall soon show, this means of culture contributing
to political change (persons dropping one culture and adopting another)
is rare. Other mechanisms, more compatible with
first-wave political culture theory, account for most of culture's
contributions to political change. But grid-group theorists do
emphasize the lifelong character of socialization and think that extraordinary
events in later life may override aspects of earlier
socialization. For grid-group theory, culture provides a conception
of how the world works that supports certain forms of social
behavior as moral and prudent. If persons' experiences provide clear
messages that the world is no longer working the way it
was once perceived to do, we should not be surprised if some persons,
particularly those with hybrid cultural biases (to be
introduced below), apply a different culture.
Second, Eckstein, similarly to Rogowski, portrays political culture
theory as a rival to rational choice theory, so he emphasizes
their differences, including the former's stress on the lasting effects
of early socialization. Grid-group theorists see rational choice
theory and their own as complementary. The latter offers an explanation
of social preferences, and the former explains how
persons go about realizing what they prefer (Becker, 1976; Lockhart
& Coughlin, 1992; Wildavsky, 1994). In this view,
explaining a person's choices does not involve a rivalry between self-interest
and culture. Everyone is self-interested in some
sense, but rival cultures define the self and its appropriate motivations
and interests differently (Lockhart & Wildavsky, 1998).
Adherents of rival cultures thus exhibit distinctive conceptions of
self-interested behavior. For instance, both individualists and
hierarchists strive to be sincere. But to be sincere according to the
low-grid low-group standards of individualism, a person must
express her inner thoughts and feelings frankly to essentially equal
others even if these others will not be pleased by her views. In
contrast, among the members of a high-grid, high-group hierarchy sincerity
requires behaving in accordance with externally
imposed requirements that derive from one's position in a social ladder
of superiors and subordinates and leaving unvoiced inner
thoughts and feelings that deviate from these guidelines (Pye, 1988,
50-51). So the interests that adherents of rival cultures seek
to realize are distinctive, constrained, and predictable.
In my view, cultures contribute to political change more through creative
problem solving than surprise-induced cultural shifts.
That is, in responding to threatening historical contingencies, cultures
are more likely to adjust their institutions so as to better
support their ways of life in altered circumstances than to transform
themselves into other cultures. I shall consider two such
problem-solving mechanisms.(n14) First, particularly in a relatively
pluralistic society such as the contemporary United States,
persons are apt to have socialization agents that represent different
cultures. These persons may retain sympathies for rival
cultures, particularly with respect to certain domains of social life,
thus developing hybrid cultural biases (Hochschild, 1981;
Walzer, 1983). Consider the situation of a hypothetical attorney who
is also a wife and mother. Following a series of academic
and professional mentors, she applies individualism toward workplace
issues. But, in accordance with themes introduced to her
by feminists, she practices egalitarianism in her family: roughly equal
spousal sharing of household responsibilities and
participation of the children in family decisions. She has, then, an
egalitarian-individualistic (EI or IE) hybrid cultural bias.
Historical contingencies may alter the cross-pressures weighing on such
a bias and contribute to political change in the process.
The emergence of the family leave issue that sharpens tensions between
the home and the workplace, for example, may prompt
this attorney to broaden the application of her egalitarian cultural
bias to an aspect of the workplace by endorsing new
institutional supports for working parents at the expense of the firm's
economic efficiency. In so doing she does not replace her
culture of individualism with a new culture of egalitarianism; rather,
she shifts marginally the way she applies her two preexisting
cultures across domains of social life. Institutional pressures, such
as those on which March and Olsen (1989) focus, are likely
to attenuate a person's flexibility in this regard but not necessarily
constrain it entirely.
Issues that prompt such shifts arise from contingencies that likely
defy prediction, but the intrapersonal mechanism that triggers
the revised application of particular cultures can be specified. This
trigger involves a shift in relevant analogies that has the effect
of relocating a boundary between social categories. Heretofore, for
example, this attorney has associated workplace matters
with an individualistic efficiency model and family matters with an
egalitarian caring model. So long as coworkers are viewed as
workers, the efficiency model applies to their activities. But the
family leave issue reveals some coworkers as parents and
suggests the application of the caring model. In these revised circumstances
many persons may gradually begin applying
egalitarianism to an issue on which their practice has been individualistic.
These shifts in the application of hybrid cultural biases
may alter the relative influence of rival cultures and prompt institutional
change.
A second mechanism through which culture contributes to political change
is also set in motion by historical contingencies.
Threatening events may foster changes in relations among cultures,
and revised political institutions may result from new cultural
coalitions. American political history may be viewed as oscillation
between various multicultural coalitions. Hartz (1955) was
correct about the leading culture in America, but he exaggerated. Individualism
(I), although prominent, is hardly alone (Ellis,
1993). Rather, it provides the stable element of coalitions that for
a time oscillated back and forth between egalitarianism (E) and
hierarchy (H). Each of grid-group theory's cultures shares values with
two other cultures: I and E both support personal rights
against state authority; I and H both practice social stratification;
and E and H both exhibit direct concern for the social
collective's health. These shared values provide bases for coalitions.
But each of these cultures is also at odds with the others
regarding conflicting beliefs, values, practical objectives, and interests,
so political coalitions are temporary.
For example, as Bailyn (1967)relates, in 1760, social stratification
arising from hierarchical and individualistic sources was
widely accepted in colonial North America (pp. 302-303).(n15) But by
the mid-1760s, increasing English regulation of the
American colonies (e.g., the Stamp Act) began to foster common ground
between Whig individualists such as Samuel Langdon
and egalitarians such as Thomas Paine in opposition to particular forms
of stratification. Many individualists reacted to increased
external regulation by emphasizing a democratic public-action face
compatible with egalitarianism. This face is familiar from
McClosky and Zaller (1984), Hirschman (1982), and Huntington (1981)
for whom it forms one pole of American political
oscillation. Colonial Whigs had grown up under the benign neglect with
which Britain had generally viewed the colonies prior to
incurring the expenses of the French and Indian War and had become
accustomed to regulating their own social lives. The
imposition of new British regulations served as a trigger for an individualistic-egalitarian
(I-E) coalition by bringing individualists
initially to question these British actions and eventually to join
egalitarians in maintaining that institutions that acted so
high-handedly were thoroughly corrupt. This antiauthority coalition
of low-grid cultures reacted against distant insensitive
authorities, creating an independent society under the extremely limited
central government provided by the Articles of
Confederation. Concomitantly, it formed new governing institutions
in several of the states that emphasized local control through
an active citizenry operating legislatures with limited powers.
In the decade following the Revolution, new historical contingencies,
especially Shay's rebellion, left some--not all (Beard,
1913/1965)--propertied interests feeling endangered. Perceptions of
"desperate debtors" (Hamilton, Federalist, 6) using
egalitarian state legislatures to attack some forms of property thus
provided the trigger for an I-H coalition. Increasingly,
individualists thought that government needed less to represent ordinary
humans than to filter out their crasser influences (Ellis,
1993, pp. 63-67). The constitutional convention of 1787 illustrates
the movement of these individualists toward a coalition with
hierarchists such as Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris. Under
these threats to property, individualists reveal another
face, this one focused on private material interests, also familiar
from McClosky and Zaller (1984), Hirschman (1982), and
Huntington (1981) for whom it forms the second pole of American political
oscillation.(n16) The resulting Federalist coalition
built a more powerful and active national government than had existed
under the Articles.
However, routine Federalist practices of economic favoritism and exclusion--franchises,
concessions, charters, and so forth--as
well as glorification of public authority, gradually prompted some
individualists to lean again toward closer relations with
egalitarians. This shift reached a crucial juncture in the election
of 1800 that produced Thomas Jefferson's resurgent I-E
coalition. The trigger in this instance lies in the success of the
preceding I-H coalition's efforts to achieve greater social
stratification. The Jeffersonian phase of this coalition was not as
ambitious in attacking the Federalist state as many of its
supporters had hoped, and "Jeffersonian" inclinations were actually
relaxed for the time after 1812, but the antiauthority
character of the Jeffersonian period was reasserted by Andrew Jackson's
presidency (1829-1837), which marked another high
point in terms of antistatist collaboration between individualists
and egalitarians. Jackson reduced the size and activities of the
national government, destroying some aspects of the Federalist state
in the process.
Instances of shifting coalitions stem from unpredictable events, but
similarly to the situation of hybrid cultural biases, the trigger
mechanism can be specified. In addition to disagreeing with hierarchists
and egalitarians on many matters, individualists share
some beliefs and values with hierarchists and still other beliefs and
values with egalitarians. An event that triggers an I-E coalition
raises a threat to individualists (e.g., the imposition of external
authority), which suggests working with egalitarians to construct
institutions--an independent society under the Articles or Jackson's
state-bashing presidency--that support shared values and the
practical objectives that derive from them. But such a coalition and
the institutions it creates are vulnerable to a dissolution
because they do not support the beliefs and values that individualists
share with hierarchists. These values may require an I-H
coalition and the distinctive institutions--the Federalist state--associated
with it.
I now return to the sharp changes in Germany between the late 1930s
and early 1970s that Rogowski (1974) uses so effectively
against first-wave culturalists. Germany appears to be a crucial instance
that political culture theories must explain before they
can regain credibility. Rapid German transformation from a predominantly
hierarchical to a much more individualistic society
(Dahrendorf, 1967; Grendstad, 1990) is unusual but not miraculous.
Historical contingencies prompted the shifting cultural
coalitions that produced it, whereas the cultural identities of the
shifting coalition partners shaped the resulting institutional
innovations.
As in the preceding American example, the point central to grid-group
theory's explanation of German political change is that
there was no single national culture in Germany. Despite a history
of hierarchical dominance, the egalitarian and individualistic
cultures were reasonably well developed in Germany by the late 1930s.
The former, for instance, provided the basis for the
opposition workers' socialist movement, and the latter appeared most
noticeably among entrepreneurs who had long been the
constrained lesser partners in the ruling H-I "blood and iron" coalition.(n17)These
latter cultures had been discredited by their
association with the social and economic turbulence of the Weimar period.
But the hierarchical faction dominant in the late
1930s was the upstart Nazi Party, which was not well respected by more
traditional factions of the H-I coalition. After achieving
mass popularity through reestablishing social stability and economic
prosperity, the Nazis led Germany to destruction in the
Second World War. The German regions that initially formed the Federal
Republic were dominated by Western societies that
worked selectively with German elites to build individualistic institutions.
Thus, a historical contingency, the unusual openness to external influence
created by Germany's wartime destruction, interacted
with the presence of a significant indigenous individualistic culture
with which representatives of the West could work and
facilitated a reversal in the relative influence of the partners in
the long-standing German governing coalition. German
individualists were encouraged and emboldened by Western colleagues
and set about constructing the institutions through which
individualists realize their values: a rights-based, competitive, representative,
political system and a form of market capitalism.
Simultaneously, German hierarchists frequently found that their values
and the institutions that realized them were discouraged by
the Western allies. During the formal occupation, a coalition of Western
and German individualists dominated western Germany,
reshaping its institutions in accordance with their values. As the
Federal Republic acquired autonomy, it became increasingly
clear that indigenous German individualists had replaced hierarchists
as the preeminent partners in the governing coalition.(n18)
Rogowski (1974) puts particular emphasis on a paucity of generational
differences in citizen support for this new coalition and its
institutions (p. 9). Others have since acquired extensive evidence
of intergenerational change. Using participation in political
discussion as an index of democratic allegiance, Baker, Dalton, and
Hildebrandt (1981) show that although participation in
political discussion increased for five different German generations
between 1953 and 1972, there are also sharp and growing
intergenerational differences (see pp. 13, 45-52, especially 46). Later
generations participate more actively in political
discussion. Across the Federal Republic's early decades, then, it is
reasonable to interpret the growing support for individualistic
institutions (Conradt, 1978, p. 49, 1980; Dalton, 1989, pp. 100-104)
as the result of two factors. First, some cultural shifting
occurred among older persons, particularly those with hybrid cultural
biases, as a consequence of hierarchical social dominance
having produced total defeat in total war. Second and more significant,
increasing proportions of individualistic and egalitarian
cultural biases developed among younger persons socialized under the
sharply different circumstances of the Federal Republic.
Grid-group theory thus offers an interpretation of German responses
to shifting events across the 1930s-1970s that does not
force culturalists into strained unconvincing improvisation. First,
with respect to coalition dynamics, grid-group theory focuses on
an externally prompted and supported transposition of the two cultures
forming Germany's long-standing dominant coalition.
Historical contingencies of the early cold war period facilitated the
activities of individualists in western Germany and hindered
their hierarchical counterparts. So, rather than relying on the process
about which Rogowski is understandably skeptical (an
entire society of hierarchists rapidly reorienting and adopting individualism),
the initial transformation of the Federal Republic was
accomplished by emboldened indigenous individualists replacing hierarchists
in many positions throughout the governing
coalition. Thus, what had once been an H-I coalition became an I-H
coalition. The new institutions that this coalition constructed
then increasingly socialized the population to allegiance.
Second, with respect to persons with hybrid cultural biases such as
Konrad Adenauer (IH), the influential historical
contingencies of the early postwar period encouraged HI and IH hybrids
to apply their individualistic faces more extensively
across domains of public life. These contingencies provided considerable
scope for realizing individualistic ambitions and more
limited avenues for achieving hierarchical aspirations. More significant
from the standpoint of using culture to explain political
change, over time these contingencies triggered shifts in relevant
analogies. Hierarchy became increasingly associated with the
German defeat and the stagnant punitive East. Individualism, in contrast,
became progressively associated with growing
prosperity and the ascendent constructively interventionist (e.g.,
Marshall Plan) West. These circumstances encouraged a
growing tendency among West Germans with IH or HI cultural biases to
apply their individualism in public life.
LIMITATIONS AND REFUTATION OF GRID-GROUP THEORY APPLICATIONS
It seems reasonable to point out certain limitations to various applications
of grid-group theory as well as some likely ways in
which these limitations might lead to refutations of particular applications.
First, the various historical contingencies on which my
examples have drawn, although possibly less contingent from other theoretical
perspectives, are likely to be unpredictable as to
timing and strength. In any case, grid-group theory makes no claim
to being able to make such predictions.
Second, the only prediction that grid-group theory makes with respect
to the specific character of institutional responses to
various historical contingencies is that they will support the basic
beliefs and values of the culture responsible for them.
Bismarck's predecessors had mostly dealt with various social hazards
among the poor through limited public charity modeled on
Roman Catholic practice. Yet, in an example of what Eckstein (1988)
calls "pattern maintaining change" (pp. 793-794),
Bismarck created national social insurance programs. Bismarck's central
beliefs, values, practical objectives, and interests were
similar to those of his hierarchical predecessors, but the specific
circumstances he faced (egalitarian socialist industrial disruption
in a delicately balanced diplomatic atmosphere) were new, and he developed
new institutions to maintain his values and related
practical objectives under these new circumstances. Grid-group theory
could be used to predict that the hierarchical Bismarck
would be more willing to construct new state institutions in support
of his values than would individualists, but it could not have
predicted the specifics of his innovation.
Third and perhaps most important, it is not yet clear how widely, strongly,
and persistently grid-group theory's cultures are held
among various political actors. Among the general citizenry doubts
remain about the strength and persistence of cultural
influences (Coughlin & Lockhart, 1998), although evidence suggests
that both increase with citizen activism (Ellis & Thompson,
1997). Thus, it seems likely that among political elites, cultural
orientations are sufficiently strong and stable to bear the
explanatory burden that I place on them in this article. Yet, culture
may not regularly overwhelm other sources of preferences,
and institutionalists such as March and Olsen (1989) are likely correct
that many actions of most political actors reflect
institutional norms.
Hence, grid-group theory is most fruitfully employed in a specific range
of situations. In a few instances historical contingencies
may appear with such speed and force as to overwhelm disagreement and
adaptive interaction among cultures, leaving societies
to cope as best they can through existing institutional mechanisms.
Alternatively, many other routine instances pose sufficiently
modest implications so that, as institutionalists suggest, political
actors dutifully carry out their institutions' standard operating
procedures, even if these conflict with the actors' cultural preferences.
Among the instances between these two extremes are
those that Cook (1993) characterizes as "pressured decision points"
(p. 6). These situations afford political actors time to create
innovative responses and are serious enough to prompt choices among
alternatives based on rival value clusters. This is the most
fruitful territory for grid-group theory's application. Rational-choice
theorists can model individualists' actions in these situations,
but the actions of adherents of other cultures likely appear to them
as "irrational norms" (Elster, 1989). Grid-group theory
reveals these situations as straggles among rival cultures, each striving
to realize efficiently or rationally distinctive clusters of
constrained and predictable values, practical objectives, and interests.
BROADER CULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIAL EXPLANATION
Lichbach (1997a) correctly calls for "creative confrontations" among
cultural, structuralist, and rational choice approaches to
comparative politics (p. 273). But in confronting one another, we should
not overlook possibilities for complementary
contributions among these research traditions. Zuckerman (1997, pp.
299-300) credits Shepsle (1995) for linking institutional
analysis with rational choice theory and Douglas (1986) for a related
strategy with respect to political culture and rational
choice theories. This article continues in this vein. I have shown
how a relatively new conception of culture avoids some biases of
first-wave cultural studies. Moreover, I have developed this theory
in a fashion that evades marginalization by contemporary
institutionalists and extended the theory so that it contributes to
the explanation of political change. Furthermore, this conception
is properly interpreted as an ally of both the new institutionalism
and rational choice theory.(n19)
In the case of institutional studies, grid-group theory helps us to
recognize the symbiosis between structure and culture. Political
institutions clearly help to transmit and sustain cultures, but culture
shapes and legitimates institutions as well. In their emphasis on
the institutional-influence side of this symbiotic relationship, institutionally
oriented contemporary political scientists have
neglected cultural contributions (cf. King, 1973). By linking a limited
number of rival sets of beliefs and values tightly to
distinctive institutional preferences, grid-group theory helps to highlight
the neglected, cultures-shape-institutions portion of this
loop. As Madison's individualistic efforts to replace first hierarchical
British imperialism and then the egalitarian Articles of
Confederation with a sharply individualistic Constitution suggest,
changes in the relative influence of distinctive cultural
preferences contribute significantly to the direction of institutional
innovation. Accordingly, by marginalizing culture, political
scientists constrain inquiry as to why institutional innovation takes
one form rather than another (Verba et al., 1987, p. 270).
They thus beg rather than examine some of the most basic questions
about political institutions, ignoring in the process the
potential for analysis of shifting coalitions within multicultural
societies to explain institutional change.
Even more significant, grid-group theory provides a concern with preference
formation to complement rational choice theory's
focus on preference implementation. The latter facilitates analysis
of who gets what and why, whereas the former deals with who
wants what and why. The instrumental rationality of adherents of rival
cultures is driven by different high-priority objectives and
interests. So, although persons pursue their interests efficiently
as rational choice theorists argue, the sets of interests sought by
the adherents of rival cultures are distinctive, constrained, and predictable.
For instance, persons' locations in the grid-group space of Figure 1
tell us whether their highest priorities entail building
interpersonal relationships, based on either conceptions of duty (hierarchy)
or love (egalitarianism) or engaging in personal
material acquisition (Chai, in press; Coughlin & Lockhart, 1998;
Elster, 1989; Lockhart, 1999, chap. 3; Lockhart & Coughlin,
1992; Lockhart & Wildavsky, 1998; Sen, 1979; Wildavsky, 1994).
Furthermore, grid-group theory enables us to understand
why persons with, for instance, low-grid but high-group orientations
prefer the benefits of intense relationships to those of
material gain. If persons believe that what individualists refer to
(unpejoratively) as "exploiting" natural resources is seriously
harmful, they are apt to seek satisfaction through the richness of
their relations with others rather than the acquisition of material
wealth. This improved recognition of distinctive sets of culturally
constrained objectives helps us to avoid reliance on ad hoc
devices such as "nonrational norms" (Elster, 1989; cf. Wildavsky 1991).
Having rival cultures with distinctive constrained central objectives
helps comparativists produce testable propositions. In this
regard, I have initiated exploration in this article as to how shifting
coalitions among rival cultures contribute to institutional
change. The roughly half-century of American politics from the 1770s
to the 1830s and the German experience bridging the late
1930s to the early 1970s both provide instances of rapid political
change that initially appears impossible for theories of
political culture, characteristically burdened by inertia in persons'
beliefs and attitudes, to explain. Yet, when we examine these
events through the lens provided by grid-group theory, we see that
political change does not require individuals to change their
cultures. Rather, the political changes at issue can as well be produced
as a result of the shifting coalitions among cultures that
are induced by historical contingencies.
Grid-group theory's conception of culture then adds crucial elements
to two of the leading approaches among contemporary
political scientists.(n20) In the case of institutional analysis, the
theory's contributions are appropriately considered coequal.
Culture is an important source for the formation and sustenance of
social institutions and vice versa. Grid-group theory's
contributions in conjunction with rational choice theory are potentially
more basic. Why people wnt what they do is arguably a
more fundamental question than how they achieve their objectives, supporting
Eckstein's (1997) assessment that social science is
essentially a study of cultural acquisition and application.
More than simply contributing to institutional analysis and rational
choice theory, grid-group theory's conception of culture
helps to weave together aspects of these modes of analysis that are
currently distinct, often competitive, practices. Grid-group
theory identifies the high-priority sociopolitical objectives of the
adherents of rival cultures. Thus, the theory specifies distinctive,
constrained, and predictable objectives and interests for each culture.
Action aimed at achieving these objectives generally takes
the form of supporting specific institutions that embody these goals
vis-a-vis alternative institutions based on distinct and
frequently conflicting objectives. Many persons do not engage in building
the macro-social institutions that have provided the
focus for most institutional analysis in political science.(n21) But
for those who do, the construction and maintenance of
distinctive macropolitical institutions (achieving social organization
through markets, influential state bureaucracies, or unstratified
grassroots activist groups) represent rational choices for the realization
of their varying high-priority values (freedom of choice
that leads to personal individuation and social prosperity, policy
formulation by experts resulting in social order, or equality of
respect contributing to relative equality of social condition, respectively).
Thus, the development of disparate institutions is linked
to the basic values, practical objectives, and interests of rival cultures
as rational means to distinctive ends.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I want to thank Dennis Coyle, Richard Ellis, Chalmers
Johnson, Brendon Swedlow, and two anonymous
Comparative Political Studies reviewers for helpful comments on previous
versions of this article.
(n1.) A few prominent examples in these categories include Inglehart
(1997, 1988); Lipset (1996, 1990); Putnam (1993);
Putnam, Leonardi, and Nanetti (1988); Wilson (1997, 1992); Huntington
(1996); Almond and Verba (1963); Verba et al.
(1987); Verba, Nie, and Iim (1978); Laitin (1986); and North (1990);
Elazar (1980); Feldman and Zaller (1992); Harrison
(1993); Jones (1994); and Hinich and Munger (1996); Shweder (1991)
and Benedict (1934); Parsons and Shils (1951); Pye
(1962) and Whiting (1980).
(n2.) Although Ross (1997, p. 62) is less encouraged by grid-group theory's
overall potential than I, he also sees its particular
strength as fostering complementary contributions between political
culture approaches and rational choice theory (pp. 46,
50).
(n3.) By "legitimacy of external prescription" I refer to the varying
ease with which persons accept that other persons' judgments
are valid for, and binding on, them. For a career-enlisted person in
a military service, for instance, this legitimacy is apt to be high
because be or she will have chosen a life that routinely involves accepting
the instructions of officers with few questions.
(n4.) Although this claim is controversial, it is obviously less limiting
than the widely accepted notion that only variations on two
ways of life--hierarchy and individualism--are socially viable; see
Lindblom (1977). There is also a fair amount of empirical
analysis supporting this claim; see Evans-Pritchard (1940), Dumont
(1980), Strathern (1971), and Ucbendu (1965).
In addition, Fiske (1993), Maruyama (1980), and Lichbach (1995) have
independently derived similar typologies. The
similarities between Lichbach's market, community, contract, and hierarchy
options for resolving collective action problems and
grid-group theory's individualistic, egalitarian, fatalistic and hierarchical
ways of life are particularly striking. Lichbach's contract
option presents a more positive face than fatalism as portrayed by
Banfield (1958). However, as Mars (1982, pp. 66-69) and
Douglas (1996, pp. 93-94, 183-187) show, fatalists do fairly well in
some institutional niches.