فرهنگ سياسي : پژوهشي در ساختار و تحولات نظري يك مفهوم

a Study on the Structure and Theoretical Development of a Concept

Political culture is no doubt one of the controversial concepts in political science, so that, despite half a century of its emergence, theorizing and dialogue on the concept are still going on. Boundaries and scope of the meaning, scientific explanation, ability, factors influencing the emergence, continuity and chang of political culture, its implications for the political structure, change and stability are the main themes that are still subject to discussion and debate. The issues of concern for the present paper relate to the history of conceptual and theoretical development of political culture. But an attempt is made to examine the collection of ideas on the basis of certain criteria in order to determine the strong and weak points of each theory. The more important critieria of such kind are: 1) Attitude toward the concept of "culture" and politics; 2) Level of analysis in examining poitical culture; 3) Advantages and weaknesses in research and explanation; 4) Change of political culture. Thus while undertaking a historical study, the arguments of both proponents and opponents of each theory and even the emergence of new theories are presented. Finally, the status and relevance of each theory in the conceptual and theoretical development of the concept become rather clear through a comparative study on the basis of above criteria.