Individualistic:

"(E)mphasizes the conception of the democratic order as a marketplace. In its view, government is instituted for strictly utilitarian reasons, to handle those functions demanded by the people it is created serve. A government need not have any direct concern with questions of the 'good society' except insofar as it may be used to advance some common conception of the food society formulated outside the political arena just as it serves other functions."

"(T)he character of political participation in systems dominated by the individualistic political culture reflects this outlook. The individualistic political culture holds politics to be just another means by which individuals may improve themselves socially and economically. In this sense politics is a 'business' like any other that competes for talent and offers rewards to those who take it up as a career."

Moralistic:

"(E)mphasizes the commonwealth conception as the basis for democratic government. Politics . . . is considered one of the great activities of man in his search for the good society--a struggle for power, it is true, but also an effort to exercise power for the betterment of the commonwealth."

"(I)t also embraces the notion that politics is ideally a matter of concern for every citizen, not just for those who are professionally committed to political careers, Indeed, it is the duty of every citizen to participate in the political affairs of his commonwealth."

"(T)here is a general insistence that government service is public service, which places moral obligations upon those who participate in government that are more demanding than the moral obligations of the marketplace. There is an equally general rejection of the notion that the field of politics is a legitimate realm for private economic enrichment."

"Since the concept of serving the community is the core of the political relationship, politicians are expected to adhere to it even at the expense of individual loyalties and political friendships."

Traditionalistic:

"(I)s rooted in an ambivalent attitude toward the marketplace coupled with a paternalistic and elitist conception of the commonwealth. It reflects an older, precommercial attitude that accepts a substantially hierarchical society as part of the ordered nature of things, authorizing and expecting those at the top of the social structure to take a special and dominant role in government. Like its moralistic counterpart, the traditionalistic political culture accepts government as an actor with a positive role in the community, but it tries to limit that role to securing the continued maintenance of the existing social order. To do so, it functions to confine real political power to a relatively small and self-perpetuating group drawn from an established elite who often inherit their 'right' to govern through family ties or social position. Accordingly, social and family ties are paramount in a traditionalistic political culture, even more than personal ties are important in the individualistic where, after all is said and done, a person's first responsibility is to himself. At the same time, those who do not have a definite role to play in politics are not expected to be even minimally active as citizens."