Introduction
This paper aims to review the literature on
political culture per se and on political
culture in Indonesia. Since its appearance,
through paying more attention to the
subjective aspect of politics in the
classical studies of politics, the study of
political culture has stimulated debates
among political scientists. 1
The level of
interest in political culture, however, has
been uneven. While, in the 1960s, studies
of political culture were fairly common
among political scholars, in the 1970s,
many turned to structural perspectives to
explain political phenomena after
considering that the cultural perspective
could not provide satisfactory
explanations. However, since the lat e
1980s, the cultural perspective has once
again gained more attention. To begin,
then, reviews this paper demonstrating the
dynamics of political culture theory,
including some critiques of this theory.
This is followed by a survey of the study
of political culture in Indonesia.
The Study of Political Culture
The emergence of the contemporary study
of political culture occurred in the late
1950s and the early 1960s in reaction to a
polarization in the levels of analysis by
political scientists - a polarization sparked
by the absorption of ideas of disciplines
such as anthropology, psychology and
sociology into politics. On one hand, the
political scientists influenced by the
behavioral approach were more
interested in the individual level and
political behavior occurring in informal
political institutions, while on the other
hand, there were political scientists whose
analysis emphasized the macro level and
formal political institutions. The latter
level was very influenced by sociology
and anthropology, while the former was
beholden to psychology. Political culture
theory was thus developed by political
scientists as an attempt to forge a
compromise between the two analytical
frameworks. As Pye explains:
The theory of political culture
was developed in response to the
need to bridge a growing gap in the
behavioral approach in political
science between the level of
microanalysis based on
psychological interpretations of the
individual's political behavior and
the level of macro-analysis based
on the variables common to
political sociology.2
Generally, there are two categories
of the concept of political culture. 3
First,
political culture is understood structurally.
This point of view looks at political
culture as part of the political phenomena