Culture, Structure, or Choice?: Essays in the Interpretation of the British Experience

The study of politics has been profoundly influenced in the post-war era by the introduction of concepts and explanations that highlight the role of culturally determined norms and values in shaping the political process.This study examines three main perspectives from which the social sciences are discussed, and compares the divergent theories by which social, economic, and political phenomena may be explained. Rational-choice theory is contrasted with the structuralist and the culturalist perspectives. The controversy is then given substance through the introduction of three issues central to the development and present-day functioning of Britain, issues for which specific culturalist, rational-choice, and Marxist alternative explanations can be identified and evaluated. These issues are not unrelated to the pragmatic/ideological distinction; as will be seen, the answers they ultimately suggest will take us back to that distinction and enable us to place it, and political culture in general, in a clearer and more acceptable focus.