The Significance of Regional Variations: The Case of Baden-Württemberg

Abstract

In mainstream research, political culture has been considered as an ensemble of belief systems, attitudes, values and ‘mentalities’ which affect political behaviour. Political culture thus is defined as something adherent to political systems, states and societies (at the macro-level) living within definable borders. The orientation of research often is normative: to what extent does political culture promote democracy, or rather, is democracy unfavourable to it? Research methods used are primarily quantitative, using surveys and including cross-national or diachronic comparisons.