ABSTRACT
The success or failure of communist regimes in transforming the attitudes and behavior of populations, may constitute a test of the explanatory power of political culture theory. The Communist experience is particularly important as an approach to testing political culture theory since from one point of view it represents a genuine effort to "falsify" it. In marxism-leninism as currently explicated in the theoretical and "social science" literature in socialist countries, the full conceptual framework of political culture theory is employed. The Communist experiences in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia are even stronger supports for political culture theory. Three cases of indigenous communist revolutions-the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Cuba-fail to falsify political culture theory. The revolutionary aims of creating a "socialist man" have been largely given up in the Soviet Union and Cuba and were never seriously pursued in Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union has settled for popular legitimacy, a general belief in socialism, and a willingness to participate in regime-initiated campaigns.
