Book Reviews : The Political Culture of the United States: The Influence of Member Values on Regime Maintenance. By DONALD J. DEVINE. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972. Pp. vi, 383. $7.95.)
| Date | 01 March 1974 |
| Author | Edward S. Malecki |
| Published date | 01 March 1974 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591297402700111 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
183
change
was
a
universal
phenomenon....&dquo;
There
is
certainly
nothing
funny
about
Boulding’s
insightful
charge
that
anthropologists
have
been
free
enough
with
the
secrets
of
other,
simpler,
cultures,
but
have
shown
little
stomach
for
penetrating
key
mysteries
of
our
own.
Where,
for
example,
is
the
ethnography
of
the
Federal
Reserve
Board?
(Or
to
take
a
different
tack,
social
scientific
scrutiny
and
analysis
of
the
Ford
Foundation
or
the
SSRC - these
two
being
my
examples
and
not
Boulding’s. )
Originally
I
intended
to
tear
into
several
of
these
papers
but
even
a
review
of
article
length
would
not
suffice
for
the
issues
involved.
To
the
extent
that
this
book
touches
such
issues
and
arouses
such
a
strong
reaction
in
me,
I
must
say
that
it is
stimulating.
Like
editor
Louis
Schneider,
however,
I
am
left
with
an
uneasy
feeliing
about
it
and
I
hope
I
am
not
confusing
that
uneasiness
with
stimulation.
Columbia
University
MORTON
FRIED
The
Political
Culture
of
the
United
States:
The
Influence
of
Member
Values
on
Regime
Maintenance.
By
DONALD
J.
DEVINE.
(Boston:
Little,
Brown
and
Company,
1972.
Pp. vi, 383.
$7.95.)
This
book
is
one
of
a
series
edited
by
Gabriel
Almond,
James
Coleman,
and
Lucian
Pye.
The
author
relies
heavily
on
the
terminology
and
framework
of
Almond
and
David
Easton
in
conducting
his
secondary
analysis
of
survey
materials.
The
major
thesis
of
the
book
is
that
American
political
culture
has
been
and
remains
dominated
by
a
mass
consensus
on
the
principles
of
Lockean
liberalism.
The
most
original
aspect
of
the
book
is
Chapter
VI
where
the
author
uses
Easton’s
distinction
between
authorities,
regime,
and
community
to
explicate
the
pluralist
argument
about
the
necessity
for
both
conflict
and
consensus
for
stable
democratic
societies.
Arguing
that
consensus
is
required
at
the
regime
and
com-
munity
level,
the
author
is
then
able
to
offer
an
explanation
for
the
conflicting
sur-
vey
data
on
commitment
to
basic
democratic
norms.
Rather
than
viewing
this
as
evidence
of
the
lack
of
consensus
over
norms
Devine
argues
that
periodic
loss
of
support
for
these
values
in
concrete
situations
reflects
system
stress
which
when
re-
moved
results
in
the
original
support
for
the
values.
He
then
offers
some
support-
ing
data.
While
this
does
represent
one
interpretation
of
the
evidence,
it
clearly
is
not
the
only
nor
necessarily
the
best
explanation.
Where
approval
of
a
glittering
generality
such
as
free
speech
is
contradicted
in
a
specific
situation
such
as
rejecting
the
right
of
a
Communist
to
speak
at
a
local
high
school,
one
is
faced
with
the
problem
of
deciding
which
response
is
a
more
accurate
indicator
of
the
person’s
true
values.
Devine
asserts
that
the
response
to
the
glittering
generality
is
the
best
measure,
but
methodological
theory
points
to
the
opposite
conclusion.
While
survey
research
is
an
adequate
tool
for
measuring
opinions
and
nondeviant
behavior,
it clearly is
methodologically
inadequate
for
measuring
values
which
are
close
to
the
inner
core
of
personality
structure.
A
snap
reply
to
a
single
abstract
survey
question
is
more
likely
to
reflect
the
prevailing
polite-
ness
norms
than
deep-seated
values.
Anybody with
a
modicum
of
education
knows
To continue reading
Request your trial