The Civic Culture Transformed
From Allegiant to Assertive Citizens

This book reevaluates Almond, Verba, and Pye's original ideas about the shape of a civic culture that supports democracy. Marshaling a massive amount of cross-national, longitudinal public opinion data from the World Values Survey Association, the authors demonstrate multiple manifestations of a deep shift in the mass attitudes and behaviors that undergird democracy. The chapters in this book show that in dozens of countries around the world, citizens have turned away from allegiance toward a decidedly “assertive” posture to politics: they have become more distrustful of electoral politics, institutions, and representatives and are more ready to confront elites with demands from below. Most importantly, societies that have advanced the most in the transition from an allegiant to an assertive model of citizenship are better-performing democracies – in terms of both accountable and effective governance.

Reviews & endorsements

"This is an interesting and important volume on political culture, focusing on postmaterialist values and beliefs, their origin, evolution and relation to functioning democracy … It contributes to substantive political science research, especially comparative research; and, perhaps even more to the processes of studying comparative politics."
Perspectives on Politics

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Product details

• Date Published: December 2014
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9781107682726
• length: 360 pages

• dimensions: 226 x 152 x 20 mm
• weight: 0.48kg
• contains: 53 b/w illus. 35 tables
• availability: Available