Political Science 120, Comparative Political Regimes, Winter Term 2005

Session 5: Culturalist Approaches to Democracy

Small Group Discussion Exercise

(1) What is the purpose of Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work? (What is the puzzle he is trying to solve?) What is his chosen approach and how does it contrast with other approaches to understanding the origins of democracy?

(2) How do “tradition,” “political culture,” and “social context” affect the development of democracy? List four factors based on your reading of Wiarda and Putnam.

(3) Italians argued that decentralization reforms in the 1970s would create a “new way of doing politics.” Based on your reading of Putnam’s chapter two, specify at least three changes in the effectiveness of government and its representativeness that resulted from decentralization. (Be ready to explain how these changes enhanced or reduced the effectiveness and/or representativeness of government).