The Political Context of Political Behavior

Too often our research ignores the effects of the legal and political context on the political behavior of individuals. The argument is made that our research should incorporate measures of political context and is illustrated through a discussion of the effects of political culture on political behavior in the American states. The utility of using culture to account for political mobilization processes as reported in several recent studies is discussed. Measures of political culture can help explain both differences between states and variations within a state in political mobilization processes.