Grid/Group Cultural Theory: A Primer for Policy Scholars Hank Jenkins-Smith 1 Oklahoma University As developed in anthropology (Douglas 1966;

1970; 1990) and later

introduced into political science (Wildavsky 1987), cultural theory argues that four distinctive worldviews or cultural biasesegalitarianism, hierarchism, how individuals formulate both broad social orientations and derive more specific in which individuals (and, by aggregation, groups) respond to two distinctive individualism, and fatalismserve as the primary combinations of values that guide

policy perspectives (Wildavsky 1987). CT worldviews are derived from the manner dimensions that characterize social relations (sometimes referred to as dimensions units or social collectivities. Best conceived as a continuum, the group dimension is bounded at the low-group end by the perspective that individuals stand outside group boundaries, completely identified (by both self and others) as autonomous actors who (for better or worse) are dependent for survival on their own devices. choices are largely subject to group determination. The second dimension of sociality within CT is grid, which refers to the degree to which patterns of interactions in individuals lives are circumscribed by externally imposed of sociality). The first is the group dimension, which concerns the degree to which

individuals understand themselves to be incorporated into and defined by bounded

The high group end of the continuum is defined by those who see themselves as

fully defined by their group affiliations, through which individual preferences and

individuals face few (if any) societally imposed limits (and, by the same token, little guidance) on how relationships are to be transacted. Transactions between and among individuals will require the establishment (negotiation) of terms, which
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prescriptions, like rules, norms, laws, and traditions. At the low grid continuum,

provides leeway but may add to transaction costs, uncertainties and (in some cases)
This primer is abstracted from a paper co-authored with Carol Silva, Joe Ripberger, and Kuhika Gupta. See Jenkins-Smith et al, 2012.

lost opportunities. At the high end, a thicket of externally imposed rules and

guidance, constraining and channeling options while reducing uncertainties, binds interactions with others. When the group and grid dimensions are overlaid, they produce four quadrants that combine the relative prescriptions of grid with the relative attachments to group resulting in the four distinctive worldviews defined

by CT: hierarchism, individualism, egalitarianism, and fatalism (Dake 1991; Rayner 1999). As explained by Wildavsky, opting into one or another of the quadrants is a of grid/group cultural orientations is illustrated in Figure 1. matter of choosing preferences by constructing institutions (1987). 2 The pattern Figure 1: Grid/Group Cultural Types

1992; Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky 1990; Wildavsky and Dake 1990; Mamadouh

Among CT scholars there has been a vigorous debate over whether cultural orientations are primarily manifested as individual-level dispositions and preferences or better understood as attributes of organizations (see, e.g., Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky [1990] in comparison with Rayner [1986] and [1992]). We see organizational and individual cultural attributes as interactive, and (as indicated by our emphasis on the underlying grid group continua) do not expect to find many pure type individuals. However the theory does indicate that the four quadrants exhaust the logically compatible bundles of value orientations (perhaps except for that of hermits), so we expect there to be some cognitive pressure for consistency and hence a tendency, on the part of individuals, to opt for one cultural orientation more than others.

group identities and binding prescriptions (high group, high grid), will place the

Persons or groups disposed to a hierarchical worldview, with meaningful

welfare of the group before their own, and will be keenly aware of whether other

individuals are members of the group or outsiders. Hierarchs will prefer that people have defined roles in society, and will tend to place great value on procedures, lines grid) experiences little if any group identity, and feels bound by few structural will tend to expect people by and large to fend for themselves. The kinds of procedural and relational prescriptions preferred by hierarchs will seem to prescriptions. Individualists dislike constraints imposed upon them by others, and individualists (when applied to them) to be cumbersome impediments to the kinds of transactions that allow one to get ahead in life. In contrast, those disposed to an egalitarian worldview (high group, low grid) seek strong group identities and prefer minimal external prescriptions. They prefer a society based on equality within the powerful sense of social solidarity to the group, and vest authority within the community rather than in experts or institutionally defined leaders. Lastly, those group, rather than one variegated by rank and status. Egalitarians tend to exhibit a disposed to a fatalist worldview (low group, high grid) consider themselves subject to binding external constraints; yet they feel largely excluded from membership in the social groupings that shape larger societal outcomes. Fatalists tend to believe of chance than choice. 3 that they have little control over their lives, and that their lot in life is more a matter by CT have been used to explain opinion formation in a variety of disparate political domains, ranging from environmental and economic policy to public health and national security issues. 4 Indeed, one of the remarkable achievements of CT
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of authority, social stability, and order. By contrast, an individualist (low group, low

Since their inception and development in the 1980s, the worldviews posited

For a more complete description of these worldviews, see Thompson, Ellis, & Wildavsky 1990. 4 For the application of CT to environmental policy, see Thompson, Ellis, & Wildvsky, 1990; Schwarz & Thompson, 1990; Jenkins-Smith & Smith, 1994; Ellis & Thompson, 1997; Grendstad & Selle, 2000. For a discussion of economic policy and CT, see Malkin & Wildavsky, 1991; and Swaney, 1995. For a look at CT and regulatory policy, see Lodge,

scholarship has been its portability to a wide range of public policy issue areas. This is not to say that CT scholarship has not had its detractors. 5 Of particular interest has been the debate among scholars over the relative role of CT worldviews and by the argument that particular worldviews (in this case, individualism and political ideology (in particular, see Mechaud et al 2009). This debate was initiated egalitarianism) were merely a restatement of the left-right ideological continuum. to replicate (see Ripberger et al 2012), it did raise the important question of the relationship between particular expressions of political ideology and cultural worldviews. Recent scholarship (Jackson 2011) has explored a promising explanation, in which competing worldviews confront societal problems, but given society. In the American context, single-member districts and plurality While this argument hinged on ignoring hierarchs and fatalists and proved difficult

necessarily do so through the institutional arrangements for collective choice in a elections militate strongly toward a two-party system (Downs 1957)familiar as major parties in a two party system forces multiple dimensions of conflict onto a Duvergers Law. As Downs (1957) explained, the repeated competition between the single dimension of competition and choice. Thus competing worldviews are forced by partisan campaigns into temporary alignments, in which hierarchs have aligned (uneasily) with egalitarians against individualists in the New Deal formulation of welfare state liberalism, but later the individualist and hierarchic neoconservatives and tea-partiers have sided up against an egalitarian-leaning left in

which conservatives barely contain the stresses that pit fiscal libertarians against recast along the single dimension of dispute imposed by a dominant two-party

social conservatives. Emergence of new problems and events over time lead to splits and reformulations of left and right, but at each formulation political ideology is system. Thus political ideologies in the American case (and other societies with 2Wegrich, & McElroy, 2010. To see how some have applied CT to public health issues, see Kahan et al., 2010; and Jenkins-Smith, Silva, & Song, 2010. Lastly, for an example of the application of CT to national security issues, see Jenkins-Smith & Herron, 2009; and JenkinsSmith, Herron, & Ripberger, 2010. 5 For a brief discussion of these challenges, see Boholm, 1996; Marris, Langford, & ORiordan, 1998; and Verweij & Nowacki, 2010.

party electoral systems) speak in multiple voices as echoes of prior temporary

cultural alignments processed through societal institutions of collective choice. If

correct, this formulation suggests that at a given point in time measures of political literature on the relationship between mass beliefs and policy positions (Jackson 2011; Ripberger et al 2011). numerous policy domains suggests that grid/group worldviews may play a In sum, the breadth of applications and the explanatory traction gained in

ideology and cultural worldview will partially overlap, and both will explain some of the variation in policy positions. This is consistent with the findings of the recent

theoretically useful role in understanding policy belief systems more generally. Some of my current work, as described in the May, 2012 presentation for the Workshop on Policy Process Research (WOPPR) and the Environmental Affairs process. Working Group (EAWG) at the School of Public Affairs (SPA), University of Colorado Denver, attempts to apply grid/group theories to frameworks of the public policy

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