Political culture and state behavior: Why Germany confounds neorealism

During the past decade, a growing number of scholars have turned to cultura l approaches to account for the foreign and security policies of states. Su rprisingly, however, these scholars have devoted little attention to the co ncept that boasts the most venerable tradition in the field of political sc ience, that of political culture, as a possible source of state behavior. T his neglect is unjustified. Like other cultural variables, political cultur e promises to explain phenomena that are enigmatic from the perspective of leading noncultural theories, such as neorealism. Yet it applies to a broad er range of cases than do the many alternative cultural concepts, such as s trategic culture and organizational culture, that have been employed. I beg in by describing an important puzzle in the international relations literat ure that suggests the need to consider culture as a variable: the failure o f neorealism to predict German security policy after unification. I then as sess the various cultural approaches used in recent years to explain state behavior. After noting the similarities in these approaches, I discuss the important differences that mark them and identify the reasons for the great er utility of political culture. Finally, I illustrate the explanatory powe r of the political culture approach by applying it to the case of German se curity policy since 1990.