Political Culture and Soviet Politics. by Stephen WhiteReview by: Theodore H. FriedgutSlavic Review, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Autumn, 1981), p. 483Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496217 .

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Reviews 483

POLITICAL CULTURE AND SOVIET POLITICS. By Stephen White. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979. xiv, 234 pp. Tables. $22.50.

Stephen White's book is the opening statement rather than the definitive work in what promises to be a long and lively discussion of the political culture of the USSR. Those who attended the panel on this subject at the 1980 World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies in Garmisch witnessed an often heated debate which ranged from definition and applicability of the term, political culture, to interpretations of Russian history. The interest generated by this session was largely due to White's efforts. Though others, notably Frederick C. Barghoorn, pioneered the use of the concept in Soviet studies, the work reviewed here is the first full-scale attempt to build an analysis of Soviet political life solely around the concept of political culture.

The author opens with a historical review of the use of political culture analysis from Montesquieu and de Tocqueville to contemporary political science, defining the concept as "the attitudinal and behavioral matrix within which the political system is located. The political culture . . . both expresses and influences the patterns of political belief and behavior within a given political system." In positing the interrelation of belief and behavior and noting the discrepancy which may exist between them, White cuts straight to the heart of the analytic problem. The Soviet Union is a political system created by revolution, and revolu- tion ultimately consists of changing old beliefs, a much more difficult and prolonged task than the simple proscription of old behavior patterns and the decree of new ones. Implicit in this is the understanding that culture is a complex phenomenon and its change a lengthy and incremental process, unattainable by fiat or force.

The chapters on Russian history are a useful summary of the social and traditional basis of Russian and Soviet authoritarianism. Also useful and interesting is the author's account of the Bolsheviks' early efforts to change the landmarks of Russian culture by replacement of statuary and the decree of new anniversaries and festivals, along with a massive propaganda effort.

It is when White attempts to determine the nature of contemporary Soviet political culture and the impact of Marxism-Leninism on it that he bogs down in a morass of statistics from Soviet sociological studies and non-Soviet refugee and emigre studies, barely saving his readers by offering them a few firm patches of analysis on which to pick their way warily through to the end. The amount of source material offered is impressive but necessarily selective and could profitably have been further synthesized. Perhaps Barghoorn's principle of "cultural cleavages" could have been used as a central idea around which to organize con- clusions regarding the extent of persistence of intergenerational, intergroup, and interperiod strains and the flaws and faults in the "monolith" of Soviet society which set up a dynamic for change. As the book stands, we have been given a set of parameters and some rules of the game, but little in the way of summary conclusions. The reader comes away somewhat dis- appointed at having no more definite indication of directions and possibilities of political change than that the Soviet regime may encounter difficulty in maintaining its legitimacy and public support if living standards decline.

White's work is not totally free of contradictory statements, unsupported and debatable propositions, and unfulfilled promises. A limited review cannot, however, dwell on these shortcomings, and they should not be allowed to obscure the contribution which the author has made to scholarship by raising and defining the problem and by bringing it to center stage. It is hoped that White will continue to work on this subject, prodding and arousing his colleagues until he, or someone else, can satisfactorily answer all the contentious problems of method and substance which he so boldly raises in this work.

THEODORE H. FRIEDGUT Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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