Cultural contributions to explaining institutional form, political change,and rational decisions

Relying on culture as an important explanatory variable is regarded with sk epticism by many contemporary political scientists. Yet, doubts about cultu re's usefulness rest in large parton false perceptions of various sorts. Th ese misunderstandings relegate an important explanatory variable to the soc ial science scrap heap. Accordingly the author engages in three tasks. Firs t, selected prominent arguments for culture's lack of explanatory usefulnes s are discussed. Second, it is demonstrated how at least one conceptualizat ion of culture, Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky's grid-group theory, overc omes aspects of these difficulties and contributes to explaining institutio nal form and political change. Third, it is argued that grid-group theory c ontributes significantly to both institutional analysis and rational choice theory. Grid-group theory augments each of these latter two approaches hes and, more important, reveals complementary aspects, linking these modes of analysis together as mutually supportive elements of a more inclusive expl anatory scheme.