ABSTRACT
The third wave of democratization has prompted a paradigmatic shift in the study of political culture since the second half of the 1980s (Almond 1990; Eckstein 1988; Pye 1990). From its inception, third-wave democratization was understood in terms of socioeconomic structure, strategic interaction of elites, and institutional design, while changes in mass politics and belief systems and in the way political culture influences the process of democratization have not been the focus of discussion (Klesner 1998, 478; Shin 1994, 154). A growing number of scholars have pointed out that mass politics and cultural shifts are very important factors in consolidating democratic regimes. Thus, political scientists now talk of “bringing the people back in.” 1
