On Jan 31, 2012, at 1:45 PM, Marv Gandall wrote:
> The low level of political consciousness permits this,
Sorry for quoting only this.
Emmanuel Todd suggests that political consciousness, at least in France (from his "Après la démocratie") goes hand in hand with the religious practice level.
With a strong religious feeling on one side of the political spectrum you can find a strong political "consciousness" in left parties.
He illustrates this with the lowering of support for the French Communist Party that goes along the lowering of the overall religious practice level.
Basically, he says that "political consciousness" is some sort of faith and that when society as a whole has less need for faith (because the material comfort level is more equally spread) then both sides of the faith spectrum loose their support base.
Jean-Christophe Helary