A society's political culture is a powerful force in shaping the form and character of governance within the society. The political culture, to a great extent, determines whether the society is able to maintain and operate a viable and enduring constitutional democratic system of government, or whether the society must choose between authoritarianism and domestic disorder. The nature and content of the political culture tends to limit political behavior within the society to patterns of conduct conducive to a particular type of political regime--whether constitutionalist or authoritarian--or to longterm disorder and chaos, alternating with brief periods of iron-fisted dictatorship.

Political Culture as a Set of Limitations on Political Behavior. The basic values, norms, and beliefs making up a society's political culture tend to limit the range of political behavior of individuals and groups within the society. In any society, there are set patterns of political behavior that are consistently adhered to by the individual persons, private groups, and public and private institutions comprising the society. Under normal conditions, there are no significant deviations from these patterns of political behavior. The individual member of the society is programmed from birth to death to accept and conform to these behavioral patterns. They are instilled into the psyche, or personality, of the individual citizen by the society's instruments of political socialization. These patterns of political behavior are established and persisting ways of dealing with matters relating to the governance of society.

Examples of such established and persisting patterns of political conduct in a stable society with a stable constitutional democratic political regime include (1) following the Constitution, rather than ignoring and violating the basic law whenever it is politically expedient to do so, (2) adhering to the Constitution, instead of attempting to usurp political authority and establish a dictatorship, (3) respecting and obeying the laws of the land, even in instances where large numbers of people within the society have genuine doubts about the wisdom and justice of a particular law, (4) voting in elections, distributing political literature and working in the primary and general election campaigns of favored candidates for government office, rather than bombing government buildings, assassinating public officials, poisoning the public's supplies of drinking water, sabotaging military facilities and equipment, and committing other acts of political violence and terrorism, and (5) attempting to change governing elites through active participation in free elections, rather than trying to overthrow the existing government through armed rebellion and a coup d'etat.

Political Culture and Constitutional Democratic Political Institutions. A political culture and the patterns of political behavior which it dictates are much more likely to be compatible with and supportive of institutions of constitutional, representative democracy when there exists within the society a fundamental political consensus, i.e., widespread agreement among the society's members--masses as well as elites--on those matters that are of fundamental importance to the society. Such matters typically include national identity, the means of managing and resolving political conflict within the society, the system of government and its relationship to the population, the scope and limits of governmental authority, the role of the individual in the society and in the political process, the role of the family, religion, and the moral code in the society, and the position of the military establishment within the society, i.e., its position viz-a-viz the civilian population and the civilian officeholders in the government.

Political matters of fundamental importance to a society also include its basic goals and purposes--e.g., maintaining internal peace and order, enhancing the society's military strength and geopolitical advantage viz-a-viz other political societies in the world, ensuring a sound and prosperous domestic economy and a position of advantage in international trade, and otherwise guaranteeing the unity, strength, and safety of the society and its survival as an independent political entity. Widespread agreement regarding the basic ends of a society moderates the intensity of political conflict within the society and thereby enhances the stability of the society and its governmental system. Political controversy arises not over the society's basic goals and purposes, but over the means of achieving the agreed-upon ends. Political differences are settled through the normal or customary channels of authoritative decisionmaking and action, through the established institutions and regularized processes of government. In a society characterized by the absence of consensus on the society's basic ends and on other political matters of fundamental importance to the society, political conflict reaches dangerously high degrees of intensity, there is the ever-present threat of civil war, revolution and social upheaval, and a workable and enduring system of constitutional democracy is therefore impossible.

A society is more likely to have the degree of unity and stability essential to successful operation of a constitutional democratic system of government if all or virtually all persons dwelling within the society's political and territorial borders perceive of themselves as a single nation, if the population comprising the society possesses a common national identify and common national perspective. In a multi-national state (e.g., Great Britain, Canada, or Belgium), where several distinct nationalities dwell within the same political jurisdiction, constitutional democracy is still possible, provided the different national groups are willing as well as able to accomodate one another to the point that they can live in peace.

The will to accomodate can also make constitutional democracy possible in a society sharply divided on the basis of differences in regional, religious, or socioeconomic-class identity and orientation.

If neither a common national identity nor the will to accomodate exists within a society, then constitutional democracy in that society is impossible.

Common nationhood or the will to accomodate is a necessary but insufficient condition for constitutional democracy. An additional precondition for a viable and lasting constitutional democratic political regime is existence of a set of political values and norms supporting constitutionalism, the rule of law, and representative democracy. For constitutional democracy to work in the society, there must exist among its members widely shared and strongly held values and norms to the effect that--

 
      The society, or community, should have a common constitu-
      tion which is the fundamental law of the land and which
      imposes effective limits on the power of government, re-
      stricting the discretionary authority of those who hold
      public office and govern the society;

      No one should be above the law; government officeholders,
      like ordinary citizens, should abide by the law;

      Government should be conducted in accordance with the pro-
      visions of the Constitution, and government officers and
      institutions should stay within the limits which the Con-
      stitution places on their authority;

      The Constitution should recognize and guarantee the basic
      rights and liberties of individual citizens, and the gov-
      ernment should observe and protect these rights;

      Rivalry among political elites and parties for the legiti-
      mate right to govern society should be settled through
      fair, honest, and peaceful elections held periodically--
      elections in which the vast majority of adult citizens
      have the legal right and opportunity to participate;

      The enactment of laws, including imposition of taxes and
      appropriation of public funds, should require the approval
      of a powerful and independent legislative assembly elected
      by the voters;

      The settlement of legal disputes (disputes over the meaning
      and application of the laws) should be the function of a
      system of independent courts--courts which are answerable
      neither to the legislature nor to the executive for their
      decisions in legal cases and controversies brought before
      the courts for trial and judgement;

      The individual citizen should have recourse to such courts
      for ensuring protection of his rights and liberties under
      the Constitution and other laws of the society;

      The government, in taking action against the individual
      within society, should be compelled to follow due process
      of law, observing all the rights to which the individual
      is legally entitled in civil and criminal proceedings
      initiated against him;

      The armed forces should be subordinate to and under the
      effective control of the duly constituted civilian authori-
      ties in the government.

The support for constitutional democracy provided by the society's basic political values and norms is enhanced if they include the proposition that, while religious belief should be treated as a matter of individual, private conscience beyond the scope of government regulation and control, and there should be a significant degree of separation--official or unofficial, formal or informal--between the government and the society's religious institutions, governmental policy should neither be hostile to religion nor have the effect of undermining the society's common moral code.