Day Two of the Fourth ACRPS Winter School, “Political Culture Revisited: How Values Drive Politics,” began with a lecture by founding director of the Governance and Local Development program at Yale University, Ellen Lust. The lecture, titled “Everyday Choices: The role of competing authorities and social institutions in Politics and Development,” looked at the diversity of arenas shaping how citizens, service providers, and even state officials engage in actions that constitute politics and development. She concluded by emphasizing the importance of looking beyond the dichotomy of corruption versus properly-working-system, to understanding in more detail how and why corruption or similar phenomena happen and the role that non-state institutions and actors have in shaping the actions and the meaning that such action has for citizens.
Following the lecture, two participants presented their papers. Ernesto Espindola presented his paper “A Psycho-Social Approach to Constitutional Instability in Ecuador,”” which argued that Ecuador’s long-lasting history of political instability has prompted a political culture prone to supporting messianic leaders represented in the image of the authoritarian caudillos. Silvia-Lucretia Nicola presented her paper “When Values Drive Politics: To What Extent can Germany’s Culture of Military Restraint Stabilize Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq,” looking at the ideas and values that have been promoted in Germany’s foreign policy towards Iraq and Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The opening lecture for day three, “Political Culture, Elections, and the Implications for Culture in Six Arab Countries,” was given by professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Mark Tessler. Tessler looked at how to measure the ideal democratic citizen through factor analysis.
Later, Mohamad Al-Ashmar presented his paper “The Political Culture of the Civic Opposition in Syria since the 2000s.” He discussed the cases of several Syrian intellectuals, academics, and religious leaders who have struggled for democratization, pluralism, and political reform.
Following the presentation, there was a roundtable discussion on the relevance of political culture, which Bassel Salloukh chaired and Ellen Lust, Mark Tessler, Sari Hanafi, Walter Armbrust, Wenfang Tang, Elizabeth Kassab, Ammar Shamaileh, and Abdelkarim Amengay contributed to by drawing on their own research. Some of the most notable contributions looked to issues such as when and why does culture become a relevant explanatory variable and to critiques of making implications about the political culture of the region from survey questions that do not necessarily translate from other contexts.
Abdelwahab El Affendi opened day four with a lecture “Political Culture as an Affliction: The Uses and Abuses of Culture as an Explanatory Variable in Politics.” Professor Abdelwahab focused on the two contradictory ways in which political culture has been invoked. While some talk about it as developing independently of a political situation and then leading to a particular political trajectory, it is also spoken of as an obstacle to political development where political action is needed to change it.
The two participants, Zeyno Kececioglu and Corina Lozovan then presented their papers. Zeyno Kececioglu’s paper “How Does Religions Influence Policy Making: Comparative politics of Abortion in Poland and Turkey” tackled the question of why Poland was able to legally restrict abortion rights, in contrast to Turkey, even though different measures show that the former was doing better than the latter in terms of gender equality. Corina Lozovan’s paper “The Young and the Restless in the Virtual Sphere: A Vision of Political Culture in Contemporary Omani Society” looked at the conceptualization of political engagement by young Omanis, drawing on online political activism.
The Winter School will continue until 17 January 2023. The next week will include another nine presentations and four lectures, in addition to a workshop on measuring political culture.
