A political cultural map of Europe. A survey approach

Abstract

The existence of culture is far less contested than the ways in which one can conceptualize, theorize and measure it. Grid-group theory is a typological contribution to the field of political culture. It identifies one dimension of individuality (grid) and one dimension of social incorporation (group). Combined, these dimensions demarcate four omnipresent and interdependent cultures - hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism and fatalism - each of which interlocks a social pattern with a type of cultural bias. The overall political cultural configuration of a country is determined by the given combination of the four cultures, each of whose size can be measured by the number of adherents. The estimated configurations of twelve European countries are obtained by analyzing two waves of the World Values Study in 1981 and 1990 (N=34,858). The results show that egalitarianism is dominant in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, whereas fatalism is dominant in Great Britain, Ireland and southern Europe. Further analysis confirms the hypothesized correspondance between egalitarianism and Inglehart's concept of postmaterialism, both of which, in turn, are related to proenvironmental concern.