A Test Of Culture Opposition's Power Grid
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Date
2001
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Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
The paper uses culture of opposition theory to identify ten attributes
of cultures of opposition (CO) in state polities. It then uses these general
attributes of CO to construct a measure of knowledge of the culture of
opposition (CO) and of a set of covariates using information from Cuba. Six
theoretically derived dimensions are used to group the sixteen covariates
included in the OLS models. They are oppositional politics, respondents'
perceptions and activities in relation to the dissidence in the island, the
use of mass media, integration with state, evaluation of life in Cuba, and the
economic situation of the respondents. OLS is used to model the experiences
of 1023 Cuban immigrants who participated in the recently completed survey
"Measuring Cuban Opinion Project." Six hypotheses are tested. The results
support most of the predictions. Knowledge of the culture of opposition is: a.positively associated with the extent to which respondents feel repressed by
the state and with their tendency to perceive people to be opposed to the
government's repressive tactics; b. is positively associated with the extent
to which respondents develop dissidents' self-conceptions, participate in
dissident organizations, and perceive people as respecting the dissidents; c.
negatively correlated with lack of access to news from abroad; d. negatively
associated with membership in state organizations prior to emigrating from
Cuba; e. positively associated with hatred of the leaders and organization of
the Cuban state and if respondents thought that there had not been advances in
public health and education. Contrary to the prediction, knowledge of the
culture declines among respondents who faced great difficulties and were
engaged in marginal, quasi-illegal occupations. The conclusion spells out the
theoretical implications of these findings.
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Keywords
culture of opposition theory, State Polities, Cuba