Years of Poems and Spirits

Is state an independent variable?
Can a political institution survive in the long run if the political culture get its meanings from the political institution, but not from cultural meanings?
For example, the Soviet political culture was based on an ideaology. After the breakup, the new institution rely on Russian culture.
Iraqi P.C. was centered on Sadam and Baathism. Once the bubble burst, it found itself lack of underlying cultural coherence.
In this regard, it is hard to say “strong state, weak society” but should be the other way around.

“In fact, there is a civil war in progress in Iraq, one comparable in important respects to other civil wars that have occurred in postcolonial states with weak political institutions.”
-http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070301faessay86201/james-d-fearon/iraq-s-civil-war.html?mode=print
Is it because institutions weak or lack of coherent meanings?