POLITICAL-CULTURE AND REGIME TYPE - EVIDENCE FROM NICARAGUA AND COSTA-RICA

Political science has long attempted to link the development of a civi c culture to the emergence and stability of democratic political syste ms. This paper uses recent survey data from Nicaragua and Costa Rica t o examine this linkage by testing the thesis that Costa Rica, Latin Am erica's oldest democracy, should exhibit higher levels of support for democratic norms than would Nicaragua, a country that up through the d ate of the survey (1989) had not experienced full formal democratic go vernance. The findings refute this thesis and suggest, instead, that d emocratic values are far more utilitarian than have been previously su ggested.