This is the first major European political science book to discuss the growing interdisciplinary field of 'cultural theory', proposing a coherent and viable alternative to mainstream political science. The authors argue that three elements - social relations, cultural bias and behavioural strategy - illuminate political questions at a level of analysis on any scale: from the household to the state; the international regime to the political party.

Culture Matters explores the role of political culture studies as one of the major investigative fields in contemporary political science. Culture theory was the focal point of the late Aaron Wildavsky's teaching and research for the last decade of his life, a life that profoundly affected many fields of political science from the study of the presidency to public budgeting. Hence, in this volume, original essays prepared in Wildavsky's honor examine the arenas of rationale choice, institutions, theories of change, political risk, the environment, and practical politics.

Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend, should start with these questions, and the answers, given different historical conditions, should apply equally well to people of all times, places, and walks of life.Taking their cue from the pioneering work of anthropologist Mary Douglas, the authors of Cultural Theory have created a typology of five ways of lifeegalitarianism, fatalism, individualism, hierarchy, and autonomyto serve as an analytic...