Introduction

The (causal) relationship between culture and politics, and their mutual influence, is one of the most controversial topics in the philosophy of social sciences. Despite the problematic character of this relationship and the difficulty in understanding its complexities, dimensions and its many and varied historical manifestations, it is noticeable that people tend to have opinions or take positions on this topic, varying from implicit and indirect to explicit and direct, from epistemically justified and constructed argumentation to merely intuitive, without any solid or clear basis. Sometimes these opinions or stances take the form of deep wisdom and aphorism, showing alleged depth, for example, by stating that the fruit (politics or the system of government) cannot be improved, reformed or even altered without changing the soil (religion, culture or society) that nourishes it. Such sayings clearly point to a causal relationship between culture and politics. This relationship or mutual influence can be addressed from different perspectives, which we can categorise in two main directions: reductionist and dialectical.

The reductionist tendency seeks to reduce politics to culture or vice versa. Reduction in this context means that one concept can be almost completely explained by the other. Some believe that politics is the result of culture (culturalism), while others reduce culture to politics and believe that the former can be totally and exclusively understood through the latter (politicism).

In contrast, the dialectical view emphasises the mutual influence between politics and culture, and stresses the impossibility of reducing one to the other. Within this dialectical view, a distinction can be made between blurred or fluid dialectics and flexible dialectics. Blurred and fluid dialectics refers to the existence of mutual influence between culture and politics, without detailing the disparity and difference in the degree of influence, its conditions, dimensions and consequences, in different contexts in general, as well as in specific historical contexts. Flexible dialectics acknowledges the dialectical relationship between culture and politics, but underlines that mutual influence can vary, depending on the variables of historical context. According to flexible dialectics, the dialectical relationship between culture and politics in a democratic system differs greatly from that in a non-democratic system. Within a flexible dialectic framework, it can be said that culture's influence on politics tends to be much greater in a democratic system than in an undemocratic system.