Political Culture and a New Definition of the ’Third World'

Abstract

In the post-Cold War world where economic or traditional political classifications can no longer be applied, it is argued that political culture has emerged as the ultimate arbiter of national politics on a global scale. Previous studies have contended that an understanding of the nature & type of relationships between various states & their societies was sufficient for devising a new classification of the international state system. Political culture is defined as those norms & values that relate to the political system & incorporate two forms: those that have widespread social acceptability & those that do not. Although many Third World nations have different political systems, levels of economic affluence, & military might, they share a similarity in the level of social acceptance & popular resonance of the political culture. Two forms of political culture exist in this period of change: those countries where society agrees over what to expect & demand from the state; & those that have only recently settled on a democratic political culture. In this sense, it is concluded that democratization is the key to a political culture's permanence.