The Role of Culture (in Democracy, Corruption, Growth, etc.)
- What do we mean by culture? Does MIT have a culture? Our department? Is there a grad student culture? A social science grad student culture? A political science grad student culture?
- How can political culture be measured? What does it mean for culture to cause political or economic outcomes?
- Take Nisbett and Cohen’s argument about the American South (see Recommended Readings), as summarized by Richerson and Boyd. Is it convincing?
- What is the nature of the cross-national differences Henrich et al. and Guiso et al. identify? What is their relationship to politics, and how tight is that relationship?
- In the post-World War II era, many East Asian nations performed better economically than many Latin American nations. Some people have credited “Asian values” with this difference. Are they right? Which values might matter?
- Assume that there is something to the notion of a “civic culture.” Where does it come from? What can be done to nourish it?