THE CONCEPT OF POLITICAL CULTURE

U radu je prikazana evolucija pojma političke kulture. Taj je razvoj išao preko pojmova, kao što su Comteov “konsenzus”, Durkheimova “kolektivna svijest”, Weberovo “značenje individualnih akcija”, Parsonsov “referentni okvir za djelovanje”, Meadov “nacionalni karakter” i sl. Ovaj je razvoj otpočeo Comteovim traganjem za differentiom specificom društvenih znanosti u odnosu prema drugim pozitivnim znanostima i završio uvođenjem pojma političke kulture u političku znanost, a taj su posao obavili G. Almond i S. Verba 1963. Analiza je pokazala da mnoge definicije političke kulture ističu kako je bit ove pojave u vjerovanju ljudi, jer je politička kultura sustav vjerovanja o politici. Ona se ne može reducirati na puka individualna vjerovanja, koliko god to moglo izgledati kao paradoks, već predstavlja sustav intersubjektivnih vjerovanja o različitim političkim objektima. To objašnjava i moguće raskorake između političkih događaja i političkog vjerovanja ljudi, između njihova ponašanja i politič ke kulture, itd. Pokazano je, suprotno mišljenjima nekih autora, kako se politička kultura može i treba uzeti kao zajednički nazivnik za različita vjerovanja ljudi o politici. Politički stavovi, vrijednosti, norme, javno mišljenje i politič- ke ideologije samo su različite manifestacije političke kulture. Tako pojam politič ke kulture objedinjuje u sebi različite pojavnosti subjektivnog odnosa ljudi prema politici. U tome je prednost, a ne teškoća ovoga pojma, kako su o tome mislili neki autori. Istaknuto je da različite pojavnosti političke kulture nemaju jednaku “težinu” u objašnjavanju političkog djelovanja ljudi i funkcioniranja političkih sustava. Odnos između ovih pojavnosti vrlo je složen i izazovan za istraživanje. Upravo bi taj odnos mogao objasniti stabilne i manje stabilne (tj. trajne i promjenljive) načine reagiranja ljudi u njihovu ukupnom političkom djelovanju.The essay describes the evolution of the concept of political culture, from the concepts such as Comte’s ’consensus’, Durkheim’s ’collective awareness’, Weber’s ’significance of individual actions’, to Parson’s ’action frame of reference’, and Mead’s ’national character’. The development began with Comte’s search for differentia specifica of social sciences in relation to other positive sciences and finished in 1963 with the introduction of the concept of political culture into political science by G. Almond and S. Verba. Our analysis has shown that many definitions of political culture point out that its essence lies in people’s beliefs since political culture is a set of beliefs regarding politics. As much as it may seem a paradox, it cannot be reduced to mere individual beliefs, but represents a system of inter-subjective opinions on various political objects. This explains the possible discrepancies between the political events and the political beliefs of the people, between their behaviour and political culture, and so on. Contrary to the belief of some authors, it has been shown how political culture may and should be taken as a common denominator for a variety of opinions on politics. Political attitudes, values, norms, public opinion and political ideologies are nothing but different manifestations of political culture. Thus, the concept of political culture includes diverse facets of the subjective attitude of people towards politics. This is the asset and not the downside of this concept, as some authors would have it. It is pointed out that the manifold manifestations of political culture do not carry the same ’weight’ in explaining the political activism of people and the functioning of political systems. The relationship between these manifestations is extremely complex and a challenge for research. It is this very relationship that could explain the stable and less stable (i.e. stable and vacillating) reactions of people in their political activity