Figure 2: David Easton’s political system.Author’s own diagram. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 238 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 8 / 2016 Figure 2 illustrates how political culture is related to the political system of a society, “en-capsulating both the general historical experience of a society as well as the private and per-sonal experience of each citizen as a member of society”17. It reflects stable values18 and tends to stay in place over time, which does not imply, however, that it may not change gradually. This concept permeates far more deeply than a simple critical judgment, since it responds to a whole system of political affiliations that have been shaped by personal experience and the collective evolution of society, thereby lubricating the machinery of the political system. The culture of security and defence viewed in such a way serves both as the purpose, that is to say, a political culture to be changed, and as the back-drop to such policy. The culture of security and defence must address all these affiliations for the sake of better performance, in the knowledge that, as noted by Easton19, these help to generate the demands and support that make up the political system. As a corollary, and, in fact, by understanding the culture of security and defence to be part of political culture, we define it as the set of knowledge, beliefs, judgements, customs etc. that guide citizens as they express their attitudes to the issues of security and defence, which translate into a series of behaviours with regard to the security and defence policies developed by the government, whether they support or reject these. The’weak’culture of security and defence in Spain Accounting for this theoretical framework, we must qualify a common precept in spe-cialised fields: the’weak’culture of security and defence among the Spanish population. 17 PYE, Lucian W., Politics, Personality and Nation Building, New Haven and London, Yale Univer-sity Press, 1962. 18 POWELL et. al., op. cit. 19 EASTON, David, «Categorías para el análisis sistémico de la política» in BATLLE, A. (ed.), Diez Textos Básicos de Ciencia Política, Barcelona, Ariel, 1992, p. 228.
REVISTA IEEE 8
To see the actual publication please follow the link above