6314
#7
From: Dale Herspring [falka@ksu.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002
Subject: Edward Lucas on political culture/ 6308
Edward Lucas is right on. Like it or not, concepts such as national character -- inspite of their shortcomings -- are indispensible. I say this having been both a diplomat and a scholar. I also agree that diplomats often speak off the record.
Why do I say this? First the point on diplomats. When a diplomat speaks "on the record," he or she is speaking officially for the government he or she represents. This means it is official policy. Speaking on background or off the record, permits a diplomat to make a point or provide information without making it official policy. As Mr. Lucas notes, without this venue, the public would have a lot less information on a whole variety of foreign policy issues.
Second, the national character issue. It does not take a genius to know that this concept has been misused in the past. On the other hand, I have yet to find a concept such as political culture (which is what national character really relates to) that is more useful in either training students who wish to become diplomats, journalists, military officers, etc. than political culture. To make just one small point. It is critical for anyone who deals with Russia today to understand that in contrast to the US, with its extreme emphasis on individualism, Russia is a more collectivistic society; that in the minds of many if not most Russians, power proceeds from the top down. That may be changing as McFaul and Colton have argued, but I would maintain that such differences -- which are the result of language, history, and culture --- play a key role in the politics of any polity.
In their sometimes insane efforts to produe the perfect model, political scientists often try to ape economists in the pursuit of the holy grail of exactitude. Unfortunately, this more often than not leads to rather empty and meaningless conclusions. The result -- we are more often than not thrown back on the ideas of political culture; and I suspect that will continue to be the case until we have a single world culture -- something that is probably a couple of hundred years in the future.
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