The Civic Culture : Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations

This classic text is a comparative political study, based on extensive survey data that defined and analysed the Greek concept of civic virtuelture: the political and social attitudes that are crucial to the success of modern democracy in Western nations. Cited extensively, the book was origionall published in 1963.

Considered a classic in the field of political science, this new edition makes its debut after twenty-five years since its first edition. Almond and Verba have presented their controversial comparative political study--conceived in the late 1950′s--where they defined and analyzed the political and social attitudes that were crucial to the successes of modern democracy in England, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. This book and its companion, The Civic Culture Revisited, which brings their findings up-to-date, are essential resources for professionals and advanced students in political science, international relations, comparative politics, and political sociology. "The Civic Culture is a noteworthy addition to a growing literature on the conditions of stable democratic government. . . . Both for what the book achieves and the guideposts left for the future, The Civic Culture is a contemporary classic." --Political Science Quarterly "Clearly a pioneer work in the development of a science of comparative politics. Students of comparative administration, of development politics and economics, of political theory and of political science in all of its branches will be most interested in this volume." --Administrative Science Quarterly "It is a foregone conclusion that The Civic Culture will take its place as one of the leading studies in contemporary political sociology." --New Society "This book represents an innovation in the literature of comparative politics. . . . It is a great book and it is a measure of its greatness that is raises as many queries and objectives as it produces insights and confirmations." --American Political Science Review QUOTES FOR BOTH BOOKS: "Few books in political science of the last three or four decades have had the impact and continuing power of The Civic Culture and no other authors have had the self confidence to commission such a powerful and insightful set of critiques as The Civic Culture Revisited." --Robert Putnam, Stanford Behavioral Institute "The Civic Culture (and The Civic Culture Revisited) remains the best study of comparative political culture in our time." --Aaron Wildavsky, University of California, Berkeley