2. • What effect do differences in ethnicity, nationalism, and
religion have on political culture?
• How do political scientists study political culture?
• Why is generalized trust important?
• Premise of this chapter: Differences in political culture
helps us understand why political institutions work
differently in different societies, and the consequences
they have for people’s capabilities.
Political Culture
Pearson Publishing 2011
3. • Culture is a society’s broad sense of shared values, beliefs, norms, and
orientations toward the world
• Political Culture is more specific - a society’s shared values, beliefs,
norms, and orientations toward politics
• It helps shape how people think about their country’s political
system, the decision-making process, and their role in that process
• Political scientists primarily use three approaches to studying culture
and political culture to explain similarities and differences among
countries:
• Social Character
• Congruence
• Social Capital
Culture & Political Culture
Pearson Publishing 2011
4. • These pitfalls should be avoided:
• Don’t rely on stereotypes - use evidence about
what people actually believe
• Don’t assume that people are all cultural robots
- they’re not. Individuals can step outside
cultural norms.
• Be careful about making sweeping statements
(i.e.: “Chinese believe...”)
Pitfalls of Cultural Analysis
Pearson Publishing 2011
5. • Argues that deeply held cultural beliefs become embedded
in state institutions
• Ex: Differences in behavior and beliefs between the
American colonies and Canada explain why the two
countries developed very different political institutions
• Seeks to construct political culture from a wide range of
evidence, including survey questions
• Contributes to our understanding of the kinds of beliefs
that help create and sustain effective democracy
Social Character Approach
Pearson Publishing 2011
6. • Strengths
• Provides a rich sense of cultural nuance
• Draws on a wide range of evidence
• Weaknesses
• Requires researchers to have considerable knowledge of the
country they are studying, including language fluency
• Is only effective for comparison when countries are very
similar to each other - does not lend itself to comparing large
numbers of countries
Strengths and Weaknesses of the
Social Character Approach
Pearson Publishing 2011
7. • Claims that a lack of congruence between a country’s
political culture and institutions creates political
instability
• What kind of political culture is necessary to maintain
stable democratic institutions?
• One argument: (Almond and Verba) a mix of citizen
involvement in politics is the best model
• participants - do not do much more than vote
• subjects - obey laws but are not politically active
• parochial - ignorant about politics
Congruence Approach
Pearson Publishing 2011
8. • In contrast: Inglehart and Welzel argue that an activist
political culture is important to maintaining effective
democracies
• Self-expression values are key (freedom of speech,
tolerance, trust in others)
• Provide motivations to speak out and challenge
authoritarian systems
• Create societal bridging behavior, rather than
bonding
Congruence Approach
Pearson Publishing 2011
9. Bridging Behavior
Bonding Behavior
• Based on mutually agreed
interests and empathy for
others
• Views people as individuals,
not “in-groups” and “outgroups”
• Strengthens generalized
trust
• People identify with their
“in-group” based on
ethnicity, race, language, or
religion and discriminate
against outsiders
• Views people as “in-groups”
and “out-groups” and not as
individuals
• Weakens generalized trust
Bridging vs. Bonding
Pearson Publishing 2011
10. • Seeks to explain why people manage to collaborate in
some societies, but not in others
• Social Capital - the ability of members in a group to
cooperate, based on “trust among people in a society and
their ability to work together for common purposes”
(Hamilton, xvii)
• In other words, relationships matter
• Social Dilemma - even if all understand the need for
cooperation, it will only come about if individuals trust
that others are also going to cooperate
• Ex: tax collection in Russia compared to Sweden
Social Capital Approach
Pearson Publishing 2011
11. • Societies require generalized trust to achieve this kind of
cooperation
• The belief that most people can be trusted outside of one’s
close family and friends
• The most basic element of social capital
• Accomplished through bridging behavior
• Generalized Reciprocity - trust will be reciprocated in the
future, not just in the present
• Has a mutually-reinforcing relationship with institutional
performance
Generalized Trust
Pearson Publishing 2011
12. • How have the internet and social networking
sites affected social capital? Do they
strengthen or weaken generalized trust? Is it
bonding or bridging behavior?
Generalized Trust
Pearson Publishing 2011
13. Social Character
Approach
Societies have prevailing cultural beliefs and values
that give them a distinct character and shape behavior,
beliefs, and institutional arrangements.
A lack of congruence between a country’s political
culture and its institutions is likely to create political
Congruence Approach instability. There is a strong correlation between the
strength of self-expression values in a country and the
level of democracy
Social Capital
Approach
Achieving collaboration on shared goals for large
numbers of people (like in a country) requires
generalized trust based on the norm of generalized
reciprocity.
In Brief: Comparing the 3 Approaches
Pearson Publishing 2011
14. • Individuals can have multiple identities
• Ex: Catholic, Italian-American, Republican
• The relative importance of these identities varies from
culture to culture
• Three identities play especially important roles in
politics, driving political competition over recognition
and government resources
• Ethnicity
• Nationality
• Religion
Politics of Identity
Pearson Publishing 2011
15. • “A sense of collective belonging based on language,
history, culture, religion.” (Varshney, 275)
• Very few countries are ethnically homogeneous
• First and foremost a social identity
• Three trends account for the political importance of
ethnicity in advanced democracies
• increasing ethnic diversity
• rise of identity politics
• adoption of multicultural policies
Ethnicity
Pearson Publishing 2011
16. • Racial Categories are based on observable characteristics
such as skin color, hair type, and facial features
• Ethnic Identity is usually based on linguistic and cultural
practices
• These definitions are clearly not always precise and are
often misused by people in power
• Ex: In the American South of the 1930s a person was
“black” if any ancestor was black, while in Brazil there are
many gradations of mixed race
In Brief: Ethnicity and Race
Pearson Publishing 2011
17. • Political struggles based on ethnicity can be pursued
peacefully and within the confines of political
institutions
• In some countries these conflicts resort to violence:
• mob violence
• forcible removals of one ethnic group from a territory
• Ex: the removal of Native Americans to reservations in the
US
• genocide
• Ex: The Holocaust; Rwandan genocide in 1994
Ethnicity & Conflict
Pearson Publishing 2011
18. • A sense of pride in one’s nation and a desire to
control a sovereign political/territorial state
representing that nation
• Nation - a group of people sharing a common identity
that derives from either having a state of their own or
desiring to do so
• Unlike ethnicity, nationalism is inherently political
• Sometimes appropriated by universities seeking to
create senses of loyalty among sports fans (ex:
University of Georgia’s “Bulldog Nation”)
Nationalism
Pearson Publishing 2011
19. • Religious identity is not inherently political, but has
become the basis of political conflict and violence in
many countries
• Ex: Hindus and Muslims in India
• Three explanations exist for why violence erupts
among ethnic, national, and religious groups
• Primordialism
• Instrumentalism
• Constructivism
Religion
Pearson Publishing 2011
20. Primordialism
Assumes inter-group conflict is
inherent in human nature people need enemies to define
who “we” and “they” are.
Weakness - fails to
explain change in
identity or persistent
peace between some
groups.
Instrumentalism
Argues violence is provoked by
political leaders who
manipulate symbols and beliefs
to pit groups against each other
for political benefit.
Weakness - leaders do
not have unlimited
power to manipulate
identities and must do
so within existing
conditions.
Constructivism
Asserts that identities are not
given, but socially constructed they are constantly being
refined and redefined over
time. The most persuasive
explanation.
Weakness - still has
trouble explaining why
conflict occurs at
specific times in
specific locations.
Explaining Identity Violence
Pearson Publishing 2011
21. • Political culture affects capabilities when it is used to
construct ethnic or racial categories that privilege some
people and penalize others
• Example:
• In many Latin American countries biased political cleavages
have been created between descendants of Spaniards and
indigenous peoples
• Latin American countries with high percentages of
indigenous people have the highest levels of inequality
Political Culture, Identity, and
the Good Society
Pearson Publishing 2011
22. • Another way political culture affects capabilities is
associated with levels of generalized trust.
• Citizens living in countries with high levels of generalized
trust are more likely to be tolerant toward people different
from themselves and support providing resources and
opportunities to develop their capabilities.
Political Culture, Identity, and
the Good Society
Pearson Publishing 2011
23. • Hall and Lamont suggest that some cultural repertoires are
better at helping people cope with “daily life”
• Societies that share narratives extending a citizen’s moral
community beyond their immediate family, ethnic, or
racial group promote better overall health and societal
support.
Political Culture, Identity, and
the Good Society
Pearson Publishing 2011
24. • Do higher levels of generalized trust promote
higher levels of capabilities?
• By looking at indicators such as infant mortality, literacy,
and crime rates we see modest support for this hypothesis
• There are numerous alternative explanations and outliers,
however
• There is no relationship between generalized trust and
democracy
Evaluating Generalized Trust
Pearson Publishing 2011
29. • Comparative politics uses three methods for studying
political culture: social character, congruence, and social
capital.
• There are three major forms of political identity: ethnicity,
nationalism, and religion.
• Some societies experience violence related to identity
differences.
• This violence can be explained by three arguments:
primordialism, instrumentalism, and constructivism
• We also discussed the many ways political culture affects
capabilities.
Conclusions
Pearson Publishing 2011
30. • Why do political scientists make a distinction between culture and
political culture? Why not simply use culture and dispense with the
concept of political culture?
• Why would the social character approach have difficulty explaining
why Mexico and the United States have such different political
institutions?
• In The Civic Culture Almond and Verba suggest democratic stability
does not require that all citizens be extremely well informed and
active in politics. In fact, it is helpful for stability to have a mix of
participants, subjects, and parochials. On the other hand, Inglehart
and Welzel argue that high levels of self-expression values are
essential for healthy democracy. Which set of authors do you believe
has a better case and why?
Critical Thinking Questions
Pearson Publishing 2011
31. • What does the social capital approach add to our
understanding of politics beyond what the social
character and congruence approaches contribute?
• Why do most political scientists believe
primordial and instrumental explanations of
ethnic violence are unsatisfactory, and suggest
social constructivism as a better explanation?
Critical Thinking Questions
Pearson Publishing 2011
32. • Politicians in Kenya often win support by appealing to ethnic groups once in office politicians then deliver patronage to their supporter
groups to stay in office
• The 2007 Presidential election is an example of violence between
rival politicians and their supporting ethnic groups
• President Kibaki (supported by the Kikuyus) was challenged by Raila
Odinga (supported by the Luos and Kalenjins)
• The election was rigged in favor of Kibaki, and angry mobs of Kalnjins
began violently killing Kikuyus
• The killings only ended when the leaders agreed to a coalition government
in 2008
In Depth: Kenya’s Ethnic Violence and
Capabilities
Pearson Publishing 2011
33. Question
Hypotheses
• Over the last 65 years
civil wars are becoming
more common and more
destructive than wars
between states - what
causes them? Fearon and
Laitin try to answer this
question.
• Hypothesis 1: ethnic and
religious diversity are the
root cause of civil wars
• Hypothesis 2: state
weakness is the root
cause of civil war
Comparative Political Analysis:
Is ethnic diversity the root cause of civil wars?
Pearson Publishing 2011
34. Operationalizing Concepts
Results
• Civil War - fighting
between states and non-state
groups resulting in at least
1000 deaths, with averages
of 100 deaths/year
• Ethnic Diversity - an index
based on the probability of
two randomly drawn
individuals coming from
different ethnic groups
• State Weakness - measured
using per capita income
• There is no support for the
hypothesis that ethnic
diversity causes civil wars,
while state weakness is a
better explanation.
Comparative Political Analysis:
Is ethnic diversity the root cause of civil wars?
Pearson Publishing 2011
