La cultura cívica

De Gabriel Allmond Sidney Verba

Chapter 1
An approach to political culture
– The central question of public policy in the next decades is what content this
emerging world culture will have.
– What is problematical about the content of the emerging world culture is its
political character.
– Though this coming world political culture appears to be dominated by the
participation explosion, what the mode of participation will be is uncertain.
– The emerging nations are presented with two different models of the modern
participatory state, the democratic and the totalitarian.
– Difficulties about the diffusion of democracy among the new nations:
1. Democratic culture itself; it is a matter of attitude and feeling and this is
harder to learn.
2. Objetive problems; they are entering history with archaic technologies and
social systems.

Civic culture
– It contains both the scientific and humanistic-traditional cultures, enables
them to interact and interchange without destroying or polarizing each other.
– Independent aristocrats with secure local power in the countryside,
courageous nonconformists, rich and self-confident merchants were the
forces that transformed the radiation of the feudal estates into the
parliamentary tradition. This enabled Britain to pass from absolutism without
destroying her pluralism.

Types of political culture:

– Political culture of a nation rather than a national character
– Political socialization rather tan of child development
– POLITICAL CULTURE: refers to the specifically political orientations-attitudes
toward the political system and its various parts, and attitudes toward the role
of the self in the system.
– CULTURE: psychological orientation toward social objects.
– The political culture of a nation is the particular distribution of patterns of
orientation toward political objects among the members of the nation.
– Civic culture/ cultura política: conjunto de orientaciones políticas y actitudes o
posturas de las personas hacia su sistema politico. Las posturas pueden ser
–

cognitivas, afectivas o evaluativas.

1. cognitivas: conocimiento o creencias que se tienen de sistema político
2. Afectivas: sentimientos hacia ese sistema
3. Evaluativas: juicios u opiniones hacia el sistema
– Objects of political orientation (postura) +
1. General political system: we deal with the system as a whole. Patriotism /
alienation/ democratic/ constitutional / socialistic/ etc.
2. The ‘self’ as political actor: the content and quality of norms of personal
political obligation, and the content and quality of the sense of personal
competence vis-à-vis the political system.
– Three broad classes of subjects for treating the component parts of the
political system:
1. Specific roles or structures (legislative bodies, bureaucracies)
2. Incumbent roles (monarch, legislators)
3. Particular public places, decisions or enforcements of decisions.
– Input process: the flow of demands from the society into the polity and the
conversion of these demands into authoritative policies.
– Output process: that process by which authoritative policies are applied or
enforced.

System as Input Output Self as

general objects objects object
cognition What What What How does
knowledge knowledge knowledge he perceive
does he does he does he himself as
have of his have of have of the a member
nation and structures downward of his
of his and roles, flow of political
political the various policy system?
system in political enforceme What
general elites, and nt, the knowledge
terms, its the policy structures, does he
history, proposals individuals, have of his
size, that are and rights,
location, involved in decisions powers,
power, etc? the upward involved in obligations,
flow of these and of
policy processes? strategies
making? of acmes to
influence?
affect What are What are What are How does
his feelings his feelings his feelings he feels
toward toward ^? toward ^? about his
those capabilities
characteris ?
tics? ^
 flow of these and of
policy processes? strategies
making? of acmes to
influence?
affect What are What are What are How does
his feelings his feelings his feelings he feels
toward toward ^? toward ^? about his
those capabilities
characteris ?
tics? ^
evaluation What are What are What are What
his more or his his norms of
less opinions opinions participatio
considered toward ^? toward ^? n or of
opinions performanc
and e does he
judgments acknowled
of them? ge and
employ in
formulating
political
judgements
or in
arriving at
opinions?
0 0 0 0 Parroquial
1 0 1 0 Subject
1 1 1 1 Participant

3 tipos de culturas de acuerdo a las actitudes tomadas:

– parroquial: se crea en sociedades donde no hay una especialización en los
roles políticos. La organización se hace en base a tradiciones.
The political orientations are not separated from religious and social
orientations.
– Subordinada: cuando las personas están conscientes de la especialización de
la autoridad gubernamental pero guardan una conducta pasiva hacia ella
– Participante: los miembros de encuentran explícitamente orientados hacia el
sistema político como un todo y toman un rol activo
– All political cultures are mixed (except parroquial ones)

THREE TYPES OF MIXED POLITICAL CULTURES:

1. The parochial-subject culture: in which a substantial portion of the
population has rejected the exclusive claims of diffuse, tribal, village or feudal
authority and has developed allegiance toward a more complex political
system with specialized central governmental structures.
 2. The subject-participant culture: a substantial part of the population has
acquired specialized inout orientations and an activist set of self-orientations,
while most of the remainder of the population continue to be oriented toward
an authoritarian governmental structure and have a relatively passive set of
self-orientations.
Because participant orientations have spread among only a part of the
population, the participant-oriented stratum of population cannot become
competent, self-confident, experienced body of citizens. They tend to remain
democratic aspirants (they accept the norms of a participant culture, but their
sense of competence is not based on experience or on a confident sense of
legitimacy). That where it surges parties, interests groups and press.
3. The parochial-participant culture: The political culture is predominantly
parochial, but the structural norms that have been introduced are usually
participant.
- the inculcation of a sense of national loyalty and identification and of a
propensity to obey the regulations of central authority is the first priority problem
in the emerging nations

Political subculture and the role of culture

– The heterogeneity results from two sources:
1. The elites who perform these roles (bureaucratic, military, political executive,
party, interest group, media of communication) may be recruited from
particular political subcultures.
2. The process of induction and socialization into these roles produces different
values, skills, loyalties, and cognitive maps.

The civic culture: a mixed political culture

– “Rationallity activist” model of political culture —> balance between
involvement and passivity, trust, etc (parochial values)
– The civic culture is a participant political culture in which the political culture
and political structure are congruent

Micro and macro politics.

Political culture as the connecting link
– micropolitics: the focus on the individual, his political attitudes and
motivations whether as an individual or as a member of a sample of a larger
population
– macropolitics: the structure and function of political systems, institutions, and
agencies and their effect on public policy.

The political systems included in our study

– Subdvisions for accuracy of the political objects:
a. Cognition: quantity of information + specify and accuracy + ability to organize
and process information
b. Affect: different intensities + different qualities (anger, enjoyment, etc)
C. Evaluative: different value standards in formulation of opinions and judgements.

Chapter 4
Feelings toward government and politics

System affect: National Pride

Output Affect: Expectations of Treatment by government and police

The feelings that people have toward governmental authorities may be inferred
form their expectations of how they will be treated by them.

Patterns of political communication