ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief exposition of the importance of studying political culture as a means of learning something about processes of democratization and focuses on the frequency distributions of a variety of scales measuring aspects of democratic values. It considers the institutions and processes in terms of six sub-dimensions: political tolerance; valuation of liberty; rights consciousness; support for dissent and opposition; support for an independent media; and support for competitive elections. Tolerance is typically thought to be an essential ingredient of democratic politics. One of the most basic conflicts within democratic polities concerns the friction between individual liberty and public order. Although the intensity of opinion varied significantly across the scale items, nearly everyone agreed that the government should be more open to the public, and a healthy majority agreed that citizens should be able to form groups to oppose the legal status quo.
