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On Culture and Politics in America: A Perspective from Structural Anthropology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Richard M. Merelman
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Extract

This article proposes a structuralist alternative to mainstream behavioural studies of political culture in the United States. After first describing the deficiencies in the mainstream approach, the article suggests that political culture as attitudes and values should be seen as surface elements of a deep cultural structure. The structuralist alternative is presented in some detail, with emphasis upon cultural narratives. Building upon structuralist theory, American political culture emerges as ‘mythologized individualism’, the ramifications of which are described in terms of American ideological cognition and in terms of American capacities to use culture as a means of realizing democratic ideals. In these latter respects, mythologized individualism is found wanting.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 1989 , pp. 465 - 493
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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