For quite a while, the idea of a political culture has informed serious efforts to understand politics. Such an approach involves trying to identify the prevailing values and attitudes—that is, values that people hold but of which they are unaware—which characterize a population and eventuate in a political system. This course will explore the issue of whether the concept of a political culture applies to the United States and, if it does, what that culture may be and to what extent it is fused with a commitment to the Constitution.