POLI 111: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Session 8-Political Culture Lecturer: Dr. Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, Department of Political Science Contact Information: aggreydarkoh@ug.edu.gh
Session Overview Political thinkers have over the years acknowledged the importance of attitudes, values, and beliefs of people However, such thinkers did not see them as part of a political culture of a country. This position has changed significantly It is against this background that this session helps us in appreciating the extent to which beliefs, symbols, values and attitudes influence the political process of a country These systems of beliefs, symbols, and values determine how a people interpret the proper role of government and how that government itself is organized
Session Outline This session introduces the beliefs and attitudes of people towards objects of politics. Specifically, the session discusses: Specifically, the session discusses: Topic One: What is Political Culture? Topic Two: The Civic Culture Topic Three: History and Methods of Political Culture Topic Four: Changing Political Cultures
Topic One WHAT IS POLITICAL CULTURE?
Introduction Each society imparts its own characteristic set of norms and values to its people and the people in turn have distinct sets of ideas about how the political system is supposed to work, about what government may do to them and for them, and about their own claims on the political system and their own obligations to it
Definitions Sydney and Verba (1963) have also defined political culture as the system of empirical beliefs, expressive symbols, and values, which define the situation in which political action takes place According to Andrew Heywood, culture, in its broadest sense, is the way of life of a people To Heywood, sociologists and anthropologists tend to distinguish between culture and nature, the former encompassing that which is passed on from one generation to the next generation by learning, rather than through biological inheritance Political scientists, however, use the term in a narrower sense to refer to a people s psychological orientation Political culture to Heywood is the pattern of orientations to political objects such as parties, government, and the constitution, expressed in beliefs, symbols, and values
Definitions (cont d) Jackson and Jackson have argued that culture includes intellectual development in many areas including art, architecture, cuisine, literature, music, and politics It delineates distinctive attributes of groups and societies, masses and elites, nations and states Political culture is just one aspect of overall culture of a nation or a state To Jackson and Jackson therefore political culture refers to the broad patterns of values and attitudes that individuals and societies hold towards political objects These political objects include political institutions such as the executive, the legislature, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, political parties, pressure groups and the individual s view of himself or herself as a political actor and in relation to others Political culture creates norms- beliefs about how people should behave and these norms in turn influence social behavior
Huntington s View Samuel P. Huntington posits that culture is so important that the world politics is entering a new phase where the new conflict will be one of clash of civilization He continues that nation-states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations The clash of civilization will dominate global politics The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future
A Generalized Conception Following from the above definitions, one can infer that political culture is the orientation of the people in terms of their beliefs, attitude, symbols and values towards the object of politics in a state It consists of the empirical beliefs about expressive political symbols and values and other orientations of the members of the society toward political objects. It is a product of the collective history of a political system and the life histories of the individuals who currently make up the system It is rooted both in public events and private experiences and embodies a society s central political values
Factors that Influence the Politics of a Nation The politics of a nation is influenced by many aspects of society: economy religion traditions social structure of the country people s perceptions of the role of government the proper relationship between rulers and ruled
Political Culture and Public Opinion Both political culture and public opinion look at attitudes towards politics The aim of political culture is to tap basic general feelings towards politics and government Public opinion on the other hand, focuses on views about specific leaders and policies While political culture looks at the underpinnings of legitimacy, the gut feelings that sustain a political system, public opinion seeks responses to current questions The methodology of political culture and public opinion also overlap
Topic Two THE CIVIC CULTURE
Gabriel Almond and Sydney Verba on Civic Culture Almond and Verba, pioneers in the field, conducted the first such cross-country study of political culture in 1959, publishing their results in the civic culture fours year later Based on surveys conducted in the United States, Britain, West Germany, Italy and Mexico, this landmark study tried to identify the political culture in which liberal democracy is most likely to survive and develop In other words, Almond and Verba set out to identify the political culture that most effectively upheld democratic politics They interviewed about 5000 people in the aforementioned countries
Gabriel Almond and Sydney Verba on Civic Culture (cont d) The authors sought to measure national political attitudes by testing three important variables: What impact the people felt government had on their lives What obligation they felt they had toward government What they expected from government
Types of Political Culture Participant political culture: People understand that they are citizens and they pay attention to politics They are proud of their country s political system and are generally willing to discuss it They believe that they can influence politics to some degree and claim they would organize a group to protest something unfair They show a high level of political competence (knowing how to accomplish something politically), and political efficacy (feeling that they have at least a little political power) They maintain that they take pride in voting and believe people should participate in politics A participant political culture is clearly the ideal soil in which to sustain democracy
Types of Political Culture (cont d) Subject political culture: People in this culture understand that they are citizens and pay attention to politics, but they are involved in a more passive way Citizens see themselves as subjects of a government rather than as participants in the political process They follow political news but are not proud of their country s political system and they feel little emotional commitment toward it They feel uncomfortable in speaking about politics; to them it is not a good topic for conversation They feel they can influence politics only to the extent of speaking with local official It does not occur to them to organize a group. Their sense of political competence and efficacy are lower; some even feel powerless They maintain that they vote, but they do so without enthusiasm Democracy has more difficulty sinking roots in a culture where people are used to thinking of themselves as obedient subjects rather than as active participants
Types of Political Culture (cont d) Parochial political culture: Citizens are only vaguely aware of the existence of central government They normally identify with the immediate locality, hence the term parochial They take no pride in their country s political system and expect little of it They pay no attention to politics, because they have little knowledge of it, and rarely speak about political matters. They have neither the desire nor the ability to participate in politics They have no sense of political competence or efficacy and feel powerless in the face of existing institutions Attempting to grow democracy in a parochial political culture is very difficult, requiring not only new institutions but also a new sense of citizenship
Topic Three History and Methods of Political Culture
The Origins of Political Culture Culture has been used as an explanatory variable for as long as humans have been studying politics. However, the scientific field of political culture was established in the United States in the 1950s Before that time, scholars often linked values and attitudes to behavior in national character studies. The conclusions of such single country studies ended with very crude and blanket descriptions such as: Asians are inscrutable Germans are authoritarian Americans are rugged individualists Canadians are peaceful, honest, and boring
The Origins of Political Culture (cont d) These stereotypes are often based on erroneous impressions. In point of fact, they may tell more about the observer than the observed Historical circumstances were significant in bringing to the forefront political culture studies After World War II, French, British, Dutch, Italian, and then Portuguese colonies began moving toward independent statehood, and the decisions had to be made about what kind of political forms these new nations could adopt
The Origins of Political Culture (cont d) As a result most of the countries which emerged in Asia, Africa and South America adopted very ambitious Western-styled constitutions, political institutions, legal systems etc. Most of these countries in no time gave way to authoritarian, military or one single regimes Most western scholars realized that the ideas and institutions that served their own countries had evolved over several generations and were therefore inappropriate for the new states
The Origins of Political Culture (cont d) By the late 1950, many political scientists were beginning to examine how political culture affects support for the community, the regime and the government Unlike the impressions, stereotypes and Unlike the impressions, stereotypes and generalizations of national character studies, political culture studies endeavored to determine objectively what kinds of orientations are held by the people toward which political objects and what impact this has on political stability
Methods of Studying Political Culture A number of methods have been employed by scholars to study political culture in a scientific manner. Below are five of such methods: Survey Research Examining the Opinions of the Political Elite Content Analysis Projective Techniques The Literature and Films a country produces can offer significant insight into political values and attitudes of its people
Topic Four CHANGING POLITICAL CULTURES
Recent Trends of Political Culture Governments who lead their people into calamity have the tendency of creating and reaping mistrust Economic problems are among the most important factors that affect the political culture of a country It is true to state that as the economy of a country changes, the political culture of the people changes accordingly It is a fact that the political culture of a country changes It does not change as rapidly as public opinion, but political culture at any point in time is a combination of long- remembered and deeply held attitudes plus reactions to current situations
Elite and Mass Cultures The political culture of a country is not uniform and monolithic One can usually find within one country, differences between the mainstream culture and subcultures and differences between mass and elite attitudes The elite usually have different political attitudes from the masses They are more participatory and more interested in politics They are more inclined to vote, to protect injustice, to form interest groups and associations, and even contest for political or public office Research has found that the more education a person has, the more likely he or she is to participate in politics
Elite and Mass Cultures (cont d) Usually better-educated people know how to participate in political activity They have a greater sense of self-confidence when writing a letter, speaking at meetings and organizing groups They have the feeling that they can influence the political decisions of the country The uneducated and the poor on the other hand lack the knowledge and the self-confidence to do any of the things attributed to the elite above They feel powerless and therefore incapable of influencing any decision in the country They have a firm belief that what they do can hardly make any difference
Elite and Mass Cultures (cont d) The difference in participation in politics between the elite and the masses is one of the greatest ironies of democracy In theory and in law, politics is open to all in a democracy. In practice, however, some participate more than others The elite participate more than the masses The right to vote is a mere starting point for political participation It does not guarantee equal access to decision making. A mass political culture of apathy and indifference toward politics effectively negates the potential of mass vote An elite political culture of competence and efficacy amplifies their influence
Political Cultures There are differences among ethnic, religious, and regional groups in a country When the differentiating qualities are strong in a particular group, we say that group forms a sub culture It is not appropriate to label every distinct group in the society as having a distinct sub culture It is however true that some sub cultures are very easy to identify Usually groups with different language and tendencies to break away from the rest of the population surely qualify as a subculture For instance the French-speaking people of Quebec, Canada, sometimes in the past threatened to break away from the federation and become an independent country
Political Subcultures (cont d) Where sub cultures are very distinct, the political system itself may be threatened with instability Countries with several sub cultures and competing loyalties are facing crisis of identification Even though it is very difficult to integrate all subcultures into the mainstream culture in a state, failure to attempt such integration, the sub cultures will in future claim that they no longer belong to that country