ABSTRACT
Almond and Verba begin their exploration by first considering the concept ‘political culture’. ‘When speak of the political culture of society, refer to the political system as internalized in the cognitions, feelings, and evaluations of its population’. From this initial starting point, Almond and Verba seek to make connections between the ‘micropolitics’ of everyday attitudes and the ‘macropolitics’ of systems, such as a formal political system. Even though many theorists, researchers and practitioners have contributed towards establishing the analytical validity of social capital, perhaps one person stands out as the main protagonist in this increasingly researched area. For Gutmann and Thompson deliberative democracy is:[A] form of government in which free and equal citizens (and their representatives) justify decisions in a process in which they give one another reasons that are mutually acceptable and generally accessible, with the aim of reaching conclusions that are binding in the present on all citizens but open to challenge in the future.
