The Core Brief - How Cultural Dimensions Interact to Create Political Systems - Week 1
The 8 political drivers
This week covered four cultural dimensions: Individualism vs. Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation. These dimensions interact to create coherent political systems in which each reinforces the others.
The Pattern Across Dimensions
Individualistic cultures cluster with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, and short-term orientation. For example, the United States is highly individualistic, low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, and short-term oriented. This combination produces a consistent system: protect individual rights, question authority, innovate with minimal rules, and demand immediate results.
Collectivistic cultures cluster with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. China is highly collectivistic, high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and long-term oriented. This combination also produces a consistent system: prioritize group harmony, respect hierarchy, require comprehensive rules, and plan across generations.
These aren’t coincidental alignments. The dimensions reinforce each other because they solve organizational problems, albeit in different ways.
