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Political culture describes howculture impactspolitics. Everypolitical system is embedded in a particular political culture.[1]Political culture is what the people, the voters, the electorates believe and do based on their understanding of the political system in which they have found themselves. These may be regarded as being bad or good placed side by side with global best practices or norms.
Gabriel Almond defines it as "the particular pattern of orientations toward political actions in which every political system is embedded".[1]
Lucian Pye's definition is that "Political culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments, which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system".[1]
María Eugenia Vázquez 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."[2]
The limits of a particular political culture are based on subjectiveidentity.[1] The most common form of such identity today is thenational identity, and hencenation states set the typical limits of political cultures.[1] Thesocio-cultural system, in turn, gives meaning to a political culture through shared symbols and rituals (such as a nationalindependence day) which reflect common values.[1] This may develop into acivil religion. The values themselves can be morehierarchical oregalitarian, and will set the limits topolitical participation, thereby creating a basis forlegitimacy.[1] They are transmitted throughsocialization, and shaped by shared historical experiences which form thecollective ornational memory.[1]Intellectuals will continue to interpret the political culture through politicaldiscourse in thepublic sphere.[1] Indeed,elite political culture is more consequential thanmass-level.[3]
Trust is a major factor in political culture, as its level determines the capacity of the state to function.[3]Postmaterialism is the degree to which political culture is concerned with issues which are not of immediate physical or material concern, such ashuman rights andenvironmentalism.[1]Religion has also an impact on political culture.[3]
Differenttypologies of political culture have been proposed.
Gabriel Almond andSidney Verba inThe Civic Culture outlined three pure types of political culture based on level and type ofpolitical participation and the nature of people's attitudes toward politics:
Almond and Verba wrote that these types of political culture can combine to create thecivic culture, which mixes the best elements of each.
Daniel J. Elazar identified three kinds of political culture:[3]
Samuel P. Huntington classified political cultures according tocivilizations on the basis ofgeography andhistory:[3]
Ronald Inglehart proposes that political culture can dictate political systems, and points out a correlation between Protestantism (or more generally societies with high Secular-Rational values and high Self Expression values on the Inglehart-Weltzel values map) and stable democratization.[4] However, the recurrent post-elections clashes in largely protestant Sub-Saharan countries, such as Kenya or Uganda, shows that religious affiliations seem to poorly affect the political behaviour of populations.
Russia is alow-trust society, with even the highest trusted institutions ofchurch and themilitary having more distrustful than trusting citizens, and with low participation incivil society.[3][5] This means that Russia has a weakcivic political culture. Furthermore, the authoritarian traditions of Russia mean that there is little support for democratic norms such as tolerance of dissent andpluralism.[6] Russia has a history of authoritarian rulers fromIvan the Terrible toJoseph Stalin, who have engaged in massive repression of all potential political competitors, from theoprichnina to theGreat Purge. The resulting political systems ofTsarist autocracy and Soviet communism had no space for independent institutions.[citation needed]
The political culture of theUnited States was heavily influenced by the background of its early immigrants, as it is asettler society.Samuel P. Huntington identified American politics as having a "Tudor" character, with elements of English political culture of that period, such ascommon law, strongcourts, localself-rule, decentralizedsovereignty across institutions, and reliance on popularmilitias instead of astanding army, having been imported by early settlers.[7] Another source of political culture was the arrival ofScotch-Irish Americans, who came from a violent region of Britain, and brought with them a strong sense ofindividualism and support for theright to bear arms.[8] These settlers provided the support forJacksonian democracy, which was a revolution of its time against the established elites, and remnants of which can still be seen in modern Americanpopulism.[8]
Thepolitical culture of China is tied closely to politicalsocialization, as children areindoctrinated into thecollectivist perspective of theChinese Communist Party. This inculcation is theorized to explain the delayed growth ofsecularism in Chinese culture, especially during theCultural Revolution.[9] Chinese political culture perceives the relationship betweengovernment andindividuals to be ahierarchy. Because of this, there is little pushback from individuals during policy and regulation change. The political culture also shows a trend againstconfrontationality, which decreases the quantity and frequency ofsocial conflict.[10] Both of these qualities stem from traditionalChinese values embedded during theage of Confucianism. When the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1948,Mao Zedong unsuccessfully attempted to remove these traits from the culture, instead opting for revolutionary values and priorities.[11]
Due toIndia's colonization by the British Empire, the contemporary political culture has beeninfluenced by western ideas that were not present before, so we also follow western political culture. These influences includedemocracy andparliamentary systems, two institutions that stood ideologically opposite of thecaste system that dictated society before.[12] Because of India'smulticultural demography, the political culture varies by group and region.India's successful democratization lead to power being given to both theurbanized and well-educated class who focused on national appeal, as well as more traditional, rural, and lower class political actors.[13] In themodern era, theclass system of India has begun to break down, and members of lower classes are now entering higher political and economic positions. This is especially true for lower class women, who historically have been excluded from such activities.[14]
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