What do you understand by “Political Culture”? Explain its significance.
Political culture is one of the most fundamental constructs in political science since it defines attitudes, beliefs, values and activities that people share in response to politics in a particular society. It includes the cognitive aspects of peoples’ orientations towards political systems, their place within them, their confidence in political leadership and institutions, and their conceptions of democracy, legitimate power, rights and responsibilities. This means that political culture is not only the system of political attitudes of society and individual values, but also its overall attitude to political activity. It is necessary to comprehend political culture because it determines the actors’ political actions and the political systems’ conditions for change, stability, and work.
Defining Political Culture
According to the definition, political culture refers to a mass population’s political beliefs, opinions, and feelings regarding the country’s political systems. This consists of the orientations towards the political community, political institutions and processes. These orientations manifest in various forms.
On the other hand, political socialisation comprises historical influences, social learning, education, religion, economic systems, or any cultural activities that establish how people reason politically. This aspect of politics can differ significantly from one culture, society, country, and political system to another.
Elements of Political Culture
Political culture can be broken down into several key components:
Political Beliefs are people’s fundamental beliefs about political existence, the state, and power. They may include democracy/ freedom of choice, equal and fair elections, and other resultant individual liberties on the one hand, socialism/authoritarianism on the other, or even conservatism.
Political Ideology
Politics and social relationships are more formalised world views that present coherent systems of how society must be arranged and how politics must work. These are liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and nationalism, among others. In evaluating the relations between cultural, historical, and social contexts and political ideologies, one should mention that political ideologies define the values of political cultures.
Political Participation
People’s political role includes voting during an election or involving themselves in politics by demonstration or discussion. It is an activity that defines a person’s interaction with his country’s political system and gives insight into civil responsibility and an activated society.
Political Values are the cultural norms and principles that govern political systems and their business. They include things like liberty, equality, justice, and democracy, as well as perceptions of the law and superiors and attitudes toward people’s rights.
Political Socialization is how people get their political culture. Most people go through political socialisation through family, education systems, peer groups, media, and other organisations. It determines their opinion on political systems, organisations, and government systems.
Attitudes Toward Political Institutions
These are the public’s stock-in-trade perceptions towards political institutions like the government, judiciary, parliaments, and presidents, and vice versa. A positive political culture is characterised by confidence in these institutions, while a negative political culture may lead to political alienation or even the gradual dismantling of the democratic framework.
Types of Political Culture
Political culture can be developed within different societies and political structures. From their comparative study of political culture in five Western democracies, political scientists Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba propose three dimensions of political cultures in their book The Civic Culture (1963). These include:
Parochial Political Culture
In societies with a parochial political culture, people have little or only a form of political participation. They do not regard themselves as voters and have no understanding of or concern with politics or political structures. This culture prevails in preindustrial societies or less developed countries with little or limited political activity.
Subject Political Culture
In this type of political culture, people are more conscious of the political system and its workings. Still, they act simply as receivers or receptors of decisions made by other people and institutions. It is law-abiding and authoritarian-civilian obedient, but they are not likely to participate in any political activities, including voting, demonstrations, etc. Subject political culture is characteristic of the alienated political cultures, or the political culture of the state, where political institutions dominantly regulate and control the actions of every single citizen.
Participant Political Culture
People in participant political culture are fully involved in politics. They have essential political awareness, actively vote in political and civil elections, and can engage in riots, demonstrations, and civil activities. Since political engagement is rife and people in a democracy understand their right to govern the country, there is high political sensitivity.
As shall be seen, these political cultures exhibit various effects on political stability or instability, good governance, and political activism in the political space. A participant’s political culture relates to democracy, while parochial and subject political cultures may link with an authoritarian or less democratic style political system.
Therefore, the significance of political culture is defined by the following parameters.
Hence, studying political culture is essential because it facilitates understanding how systems of people’s power are kept in order and how the governing systems change with time. Eventually, political culture influences not only the political behaviour that existing and potential voters manifest but also the state’s and its institutions’ performance. Below are several key reasons why political culture is significant:
Policy Education To Affect Political Citizenship
Political culture determines the extent of a society’s activity. Societies with a participatory political culture tend to reveal a better voter turnout rate, more engagement in policymaking and related issues, and other civilised societal behaviour. Political culture defines the standing of citizens in political processes and systems, whether as active participants or mere objects in the process. For example, people in societies with a robust democratic political culture will act in manners including voting, standing for election, or protesting.
Effect on Political Transformation and Leadership
The political culture of a country is, therefore, a critical factor in the stability of that country’s political system. In democracies, political culture endorses political institutions and stability and political continuity are achieved. People who accept their government and political regime will likely concede with political decisions irrespective of their disagreement on specific policies. On the other hand, there are societies with a weak or no political culture at all, where the citizens have lost faith or are indifferent towards the political systems, political instabilities, and social vices are likely to be on the high side.
Developing National Political Personality
Political culture also plays a significant role in developing national political personality and social integration. They include the cultured, moral bearings, and aesthetic sense that keeps people together and creates a nation. For instance, the political culture of the USA is individualism, freedom, and democracy, which are core values in the country’s system. These beliefs are the foundation for creating citizens’ shared identity, regardless of the diversity. Political culture may also influence the regulation of diversity and guarantee that various groups within a society live in harmony without violating the customary principles of the political community.
Providing an Enablement of Socialization and the Transfer of Political Cultures
Political socialisation is therefore brought about by political culture, by which the members of a political system can learn the political system and their place within it. Political socialisation is a process whereby institutions like families, schools and media pass political values within a society to succeeding generations. Attitudes, beliefs and values of a people influence the perception of young people of politics, government and the state. The work also posits that when a particular political culture is observed, the following generation will also conform to the culture since it is democratic.
Effect On Policy Preference And Political Orientation
Through influences, political culture determines the kinds of policies that are viewed by society as acceptable or desirable. Concerns taken to the polls may be oriented to the causes and effects of civil rights, freedom of speech, and equality in countries with a strong democracy. In contrast, the issues of importance may lie in order and stability, tradition or anti-state interference where political culture is authoritarian-conservative. Political culture, therefore, determines the policy preferences of the public and the country’s political developments.
Multidimensional Political Contexts
This paper will argue that the societal and political culture can predict either success or failure in democratisation. Democracy requires that people trust the institutions of the democracy, respect for human rights and the willingness to vote. In the countries that have experienced democratisation, one of the key tasks is to develop a democratic political culture. Having learnt that democracy may sometimes be fragile, it may take some time to change the population to adopt other democratic norms such as political participation, freedom of speech and tolerance of the opposition.
Conclusion
Political culture, on its part, is a powerful and ever-present interest within the polity of a society. This means that it determines how we, the citizens, feel about the part we play in the political system, our feelings toward the government and institutions and how active we are in political activities. It is immeasurable how Political culture is essential for explaining political behaviour, policy effects, and the stability of political institutions.
Politics, a socialisation structure, is not stagnant but undergoes a particular evolutionary process in society, history, and politics. Cultivating a culture that supports democracy entails encouraging politics of participation, fairness and justice, and trusting institutions. Also, the political culture in non-democratic societies that are transforming, in this case, will define the future path of governance and political stability. Therefore, political culture analysis constitutes an essential field of political science, opening the possibility of comprehensive political systems analysis.
