Culture and Politics: A Comparative Approach

by Jan-Erik Lane, Svante Ersson

Culture and Politics provides a comprehensive introduction to the enduring phenomenon of culture and its impact on contemporary society and politics. Combining a substantial theoretical overview with intricate comparative empirical research, it assesses the complex interplay of ethnicity, religion, history and values on macro- and micro-level outcomes. Striking a judicious balance between the use of global data on the topic and their selection of six key in-depth country studies, the book draws extensively on statistical material and 'hard data' rather than the literary evidence usual in studies of this kind. This second edition of a well-established text has been expanded and fully updated in line with new events. More student-friendly, this volume now contains useful references for further reading and new material on ethnicity and religion. Readers will find that the values section is now more lucid. This clearly structured book's stringent approach to the topic and its readable, accessible style make this book one that no serious scholar or student of political culture should be without.

392 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Jan-Erik Lane has taught politics and economics at many universities around the world. He is member of many editorial boards of political science journals. He has published some 300 books and articles. In 1996 (and 2009) he received the Humboldt Award by the Humboldt Stiftung.

He has made contributions to the study of culture, N-person game theory (power indices), voter volatility, comparative democracy theory and the principal-agent approach to public administration.

Reviews

[Sarah]

I copy-edited this book for the publisher, working on screen in Microsoft Word. I liaised with the author to resolve editorial queries and returned the text edited and tagged ready for typesetting.