Political culture

By
Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Ansari
Political Culture
• The broad pattern of political orientations share by a large group of
people Like a nation, a region, a class or ethnic group.
• According to Gabrial Almond and Sidney Verba in “The civic culture”
in 1963 politival culture can be determunef by three factors:
• 1. Awareness of Government
• 2. Expectations of Government
• 3. Political Participation
Meaning
• Significant discovery in political science, pioneered by American political
scientist Gabriel Almond in 1956 in Comparative political system.
• Followed by Ulm, Samuel Beer, Lucian Pye, Sidney Verba, Dennis
Kavanagh etc who elaborated upon it.
• The concept of political culture assists in explaining functioning of
political system and political behavior of citizens in it.
• It determines direction and speed of development of political system.
• It successfully places level of attitudes, beliefs, orientations, values and
sentiments of people residing in a particular region. Political system
operates within established political culture of a country.
Importance
• 1. Discussion, describe, analyze political culture related attitudes, beliefs,
behavior and orientations.
• 2. Tolerance, sensitivity, popular support for system
• 3. bridge micro- macro gap through cooperation
• 4. Promote progressive political changes
• 5. Knowledge of different levels of political development and reasons
• 6. Concept of society over individual
• 7. Provides guidance for political behavior to be cooperative
• 8. Rational elements of political behavior emphasized
• 9. Infuses dynamism and practicality in political behavior
Significance
• The term 'political culture' is used in the field of social science. It refers to
historically-based, widely-shared beliefs, feelings, and values about the
nature of political systems, which can serve as a link between citizens and
government.
• Different countries have different political cultures, which can help us
understand-
• How and why their governments are organized in a certain way,
• why democracies succeed or fail, or
• why some countries still have monarchies.
• Understanding our own political culture can also provide clues to political
relationships, such as those we share with each other or our governments.
Culture and Ideology
• In the United States, we may be tempted to think of political culture in terms of
our voting status as a Democrat or a Republican. However, it's important to
understand that political culture differs from political ideology.
• The term 'political ideology' refers to a code of beliefs or views about
governments and politics that may influence the way we vote or whether or not
we support certain legislative actions
• For example, two people can share a political culture, but have different
political ideologies.
• In other words, a right-wing conservative can be from the same political culture
as a left-wing liberal.
• In other words, political culture is something we share, while a political
ideology is something we use to define ourselves and make political decisions.
Theories:
• In 1963, two political scientists, Gabriel Almond and Sydney Verba, published a study
of the political cultures associated with five democratic countries: Germany, Italy,
Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• According to Almond and Verba, there are three basic types of political culture, which
can be used to explain why people do or do not participate in political processes.
• In a parochial political culture, like Mexico, citizens are mostly uninformed and
unaware of their government and take little interest in the political process.
• In a subject political culture, such as those found in Germany and Italy, citizens are
somewhat informed and aware of their government and occasionally participate in
the political process.
• In a participant political culture, like the United Kingdom and the United States,
citizens are informed and actively participate in the political process.
Other Theories
• Other theories of political culture address how political culture takes
root and is transferred from generation to generation
through political socialization and includes-
• Seymour Martin Lipset's formative events theory, which describes
the long-lasting effects of key events that took place when a country
was founded;
• Louis Hartz's fragment theory, which explains the long-lasting effects
of European colonization on countries and societies; and
• Roger Inglehart's post-materialism theory, which explains the long-
lasting effects of childhood economic and social conditions.
Kinds:
• 1. Civic culture 2. Ideological political culture 3. Homogeneous
political culture 4. Fragmented political culture
• Civic culture- Almond and Verba studied five political cultures-
American, England, Germany, Italy and Mexico. Civic culture is helpful
in forming stable democracy. It is dualistic orientation by nature. It is
a balance in directive and acquiescence, cooperation and tolerance, it
accepts elite role and decisions in important national issues, it is
participative and sensitize elites about public opinion.
• Ideological political culture- between traditional and secular political
culture, there is also Ideological political culture. It is born when
people are directed, controlled and make decisions as per Ideological
leanings. Dissent is penalized, free thinking curbed e.g communism
Homogeneous political culture
• Regarding political objectives and means to acquire it are uniform.
• Politics acquires form of a sport where similar or multiple values exist
and commonly committed to values of personal freedom, security
and welfare for all, one value may be considered at a time but never
at the cost of other values.
• FRAGMENTED POLITICAL CULTURE
• Difference classes establish different standards of culture, some are
more developed, more meaningful to engage with sub cultures.
France and Italy are examples, loyalties for groups run parallel to
state, like catholics vote, align, read and intermingle only with
catholics.
Types of political culture
• Three types
• 1 Parochial culture 2. Subject 3. Participant
• Parochial culture:
• No cognitive orientation toward the political system.
• Societies do not except anything positive of government nor they
expect to participate in politics as, its elite domain
• The Government is seen as enforcer of its own laws and rules and the
realm of politics is avoided.
Continues…
• citizens are only remotely aware of the presence of central
government,
• and live their lives near enough regardless of the decisions taken by
the state, distant and unaware of political phenomena.
• They have neither knowledge nor interest in politics.
• This type of political culture is in general congruent with a traditional
political structure.
Subject culture
• The citizens focus on output aspects of the system
• This tends to be manifested in citizenry that except positive actions from
government but that does not tend to be politically active themselves.
• They too see politics game of power and influence by elite domain
engaged
• citizens are aware of central government, and are heavily subjected to its
decisions with little scope for dissent. The individual is aware of politics,
its actors and institutions. It is affectively oriented towards politics, yet it
is on the "downward flow" side of the politics. In general congruent with
a centralized authoritarian structure.
Participatory culture
• It focuses on both input and output aspects of the system
• Citizens have high expectations of government and personal
participation in politics e.g voting at the time of elections.
• It is centralized to principles of democracy.
• Citizens are able to influence the government in various ways and they
are affected by it. The individual is oriented toward the system as a
whole, to both the political and administrative structures and processes
(to both the input and output aspects). In general congruent with a
democratic political structure.
Definition:
• American political scientist Lucian Pye defined political culture as the
composite of basic values, feelings, and knowledge that underlie the
political process. Hence, the building blocks of political culture are the
beliefs, opinions, and emotions of the citizens toward their form
of government.
• Gabriel Almond defines it as "the particular pattern of orientations
toward political actions in which every political system is embedded
• María Semadeni defines political culture as "the set of discourses and
symbolic practices by means of which both individuals and groups
articulate their relationship to power, elaborate their political demands
and put them at stake
Continues…
• Roy Macridis (1955) for instance, defines political culture as, “the
commonly shared goals and commonly accepted rules.
• Lucian Pye in his seminal work “ Politics, Personality and Nation
Building(1962) states that political Culture is a set of attitudes, beliefs and
sentiments that give order and meaning to political process and that
provides the underlying assumptions and rules that govern the behaviour
in political system.
• According to Almond and Powell (1966) Political Culture is the pattern of
individual attitudes and orientations towards politics among the members
of a political system. It may provide with a valuable conceptual tool by
means of which one can bridge the 'micro-macro' gap in political theory.
Continues…
• Samuel Beer (1974) defined it as “components of the culture and
values, beliefs and emotional attitudes about how a government
ought to be conducted and what it should do”.
• Andrew Heywood (2007) Political culture is a psychological
orientations of peoples in relation to political objects (political parties,
government and the constitution etc), expressed in their political
attitudes, beliefs, symbols and values.
• Dennis Kavanagh, “ political culture is an expression to denote the
emotional and attitudinal environment within which political system
operates.
Continues…
• Talbot Parsons, “ political culture is connected with orientations
towards political objects.
• Allan Ball, “ political culture is composed of attitudes, beliefs,
emotions and values of society that relates to political system and to
political issues.
• S.E Finer, “ Nation’s political culture seems to concentrate largely on
the legitimacy of rules and political institutions and procedures.
• Peter Nettle, “ political culture is pattern or patterns of knowledge,
evaluation and communication relating to political authority.
Aspects:
• 1. Political culture is a comprehensive concept.
• 2. Basis of Political culture- collective history and lived experiences of
people in it.
• 3. Political culture is part of General culture.
• 4. Different Political systems have different Political cultures.
• 5. Sub cultures of Political culture- rulers (elites) and ruled ( citizens)
• Political culture is bigger than constitutional structure.
Components
• 1. Orientations 2. Political objects
• Orientations- As per Dannis Kavanagh, it is predisposition towards Political
functions and determined by conventions, historical memory, objectives,
norms and symbols.
• Robert Dahl says- Orientations of Political culture are following
• 1. Orientations of problems solving
• 2. Orientations towards collective action
• 3. Orientations towards Political system
• 4. Orientations towards other people
• 5. Orientations towards self
Almond and Powell
• Orientations are of three types: 1. Cognitive 2. Affective 3. Evaluative
• Cognitive- level and quality of knowledge about various political questions,
events, issues, activities, both right and wrong, fair or biased, perverted based on
narrow self interest, it determines political behavior.
• Affective- related to emotional attachment or alienation, likes or dislikes. It
determines participation or inactivity, acceptance or rejection of political system,
institutions or political functions, also his level of cooperation.
• Evaluative- those values forming the bases of citizen’s decisions of important
political issues, meaning given to political issues and incidents are determined by
value systems, Evaluative aspects attaches meaning to issues confronting nation.
Means chosen to resolve and style picked to act. e.g violence or non violence as a
means, style or values.
Political objects
• In political objects of orientations- whole system, structures like
Executive, legislative, judiciary, political parties, pressure groups, public
policies and political issues, views about self and other political actors.
• 1. Political system as object of orientation
• 2. Political structure as object of orientation
• 3. Politics and issues as objects of orientation
• 4. Individual political actor as an object of orientation
• 5. Input process as object of orientation
• 6. Output process as object of orientation
Difference between opinion and political
culture
• It differs from public opinion in that it is fashioned out of long-term
values rather than reactions to specific policies, problems or
personalities. Now question arises that how do people acquire their
political attitudes and values?
• People acquire their political attitudes and values through a process of
political socialization.
• This may be seen either as a process of indoctrination that takes place
throughout a person’s life, or as the transmission of values from one
generation to the next, largely accomplished during childhood. The
major agents of political socialization are the family, education, religion,
the mass media etc.
Briefly:
• In a nut shell, political culture is a set of beliefs, values, emotions and perceptions of the
people about politics, political system and political objects of a country.
• It can help the students of comparative politics to comprehend and analyse the success or
failures of any political system in the countries of world.
• For instance it can answer the question like why democracy or democratic institutions are
successful in a few countries but is an utter failure in the other countries?
• It may be important to note here that political culture cannot answer about everything that
occurs in the realm of politics. The reason is, despite of same values and culture people
behave differently when they encounter with different types of problems or opportunities.
• In this regard it is also true that cultural norms typically change slowly and reflect enduring
patterns of political action.In this sense political culture is a critical element in
understanding politics across countries or across time. It helps to understand how politics
unfolds itself.
Kinds:
• Daniel J. Elazar identified three kinds of political culture:
• Individualistic culture – In which politics is a marketplace between
individuals seeking to maximize their self-interest, with minimal
community involvement and opposition to the government, as well as
a high degree of patronage.
• Moralistic culture – Whereby government is seen as important and as
a way to improve peoples' lives.
• Traditionalistic culture – One which seeks to preserve the status quo
under which elites have all the power and citizen participation is not
expected.
 Trends in Political Culture
It a dynamic concept and changes can happen with the passage of time. For instance the personal experiences
of an individual or the agents of political socialization largely play their role in shaping their attitudes, beliefs
and also brings changes in the society. History of any nation can throw the light on the trends that brought
about the changes in the culture of the nation.
In contemporary times one can also identify social trends that are responsible for bringing change in the
existing culture.
For instance, in trends like modernity, secularism, post-materialism, fundamentalism and democratisation, and
marketization can be easily identified in the advance industrial societies. All such trends are reflection of
developments in the society of a nation.
The North America, Western Europe, and Japan have developed the characteristics of a post-industrial society
because the socio-economic modernization has appeared there.
The young people who grew up in economically prosperous countries are now less concerned with material
well being and personal security than the generation of their parents. The young people are emphasizing on
post-material values like social equality, environmental protection, cultural pluralism and self expression. It has
spawned new citizen groups such as the environmental movement, the women’s movements and other public
Democratization
• Ironically, when democratic values are started to take root around world, the citizens of
many western democracies have become skeptical about the model of democracy, their
politicians and political institutions. For instance, in 1964, three quarters of Americans had
trust on the government; and today only a third of the citizens believe so. This malaise is also
spreading to other developed nations in Western Europe and Japan.
• In other words, people’s support for democratic norms has not waned yet; in fact,
democratic norms and values have strengthened over time as democracy has developed in
the west. The people are only critical or skeptical towards the democratic institutions and
their functions.
• The citizens of advance industrial societies are expecting democracy to fulfill its ideals and
are critical of politicians and political parties when they fall short of democratic ideals. All
this cynicism is a strain for the politicians of advance industrial societies, which is somehow
good too as it emphasizes on democracy to improve and adapt new ideals, which will
ultimately strengthen the democracy and democratic norms.
Marketization
• Under the wave of globalization, the cultural trend that came up on the
world stage is a shift toward marketization. There is acceptance of free
markets and private profit incentives among the citizens of advance
societies.
• They are in opposition of economy that is managed and controlled by the
government. For instance, in the 1980s a movement appeared in the
United States and many western European nations where economies had
experienced serious problems of inefficiency and economic stagnation.
• That time Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United
States rode to power on waves of public support for reducing the scale of
government (Almond et.al 2007).
Post- Materialism
• Political culture is not a static, it keeps on changing over the time. The only one thing is required for this
change is mass participation of people at a large scale to bring about the change.
• During 1940s-1970s most of western countries experienced tremendous growth of industries and economy.
Interestingly this time frame is relatively witnessed peace in the world. This environment enabled a
particular segment to grow up who had not experienced any world wars etc. in addition to that; newly
emerged welfare states in the west were committed for the social security of the citizens from hunger,
poverty etc. by ensuring employment or other aids.
• This combo of social security and peace led towards to a silent revolution among the young generation that
took place particularly in the western political cultures.
• The old generation cherished old values, religion, order and security and sexual morality whereas the young
generation is concerned with the issues of quality of life.
• The young people in the west are particular about their life-style, sexual choices, environment etc. In other
words, they deemphasised the traditional political issues like religion.
• They put emphasis on the expression of self, hence are attracted towards single issue groups whether it is
feminists groups, LGBT, World Peace, PETA, World peace etc. Such kind of impact is quite visible in the
Western Europe and in the United States of America.
Summing Up
• Politics, to a great extent takes place in the minds of individual’s and is shaped with the
individual’s ideas, values and their perception as well as assumptions towards the
organization, functioning and expectations from political system.
• The concept of political culture is very relevant to comprehend the contemporary society’s
vis-à-vis the world.
• The post-cold war era has witnessed the upsurge of ethnic and national differences among
the nations as well as within the nations. This testifies that relevance to cultural
components to be taken into account to make sense of such upsurges and political
realities.
• In addition to this the top most agenda for political scientists to understand the ‘transition
of nations from traditional models of governance to democratic model of governance’.
• Moreover to understand the process of modernization culture is very important variable.