This document discusses political culture and socialization at three levels: the system level, process level, and policy level. At the system level, it examines public attitudes toward the political system and its institutions, and feelings of legitimacy and pride in the nation. The process level looks at expectations of political participation and transparency. The policy level deals with views on the role of government and expectations of its policy outputs. Political culture is shaped over time through socialization via families, schools, media and other agents.

1. Political Culture and Socialization
(System Level)
Introduction to Comparative Politics

2. Political Culture and Political
Socialization
 Each nation has its own political norms that
influence how people think and act about politics.
 The way political institutions function at least
partially reflects the public’s attitudes, norms, and
expectations.
 Political culture: public attitudes toward politics
and their role within the political system
 Political socialization:
◦ how individuals form their political attitudes and
◦ collectively, how citizens form their political culture; we
conclude by describing the major trends in political culture
in the world politics today
 Major tends in political cultures of states will be
final concern

4. Mapping the Three Levels of Political
Culture
 A nation’s political culture includes its
citizens’ orientations at three levels:
◦ The political system
◦ The political and policymaking process
◦ Policy outputs and outcomes

5. Mapping the Three Levels of Political
Culture
 The system level involves how people
view the values and organizations that
comprise the political system.
 The process level includes expectations of
how politics should function and individuals’
relationship to the political process.
 The policy level deals with the public’s
policy expectations for the government.

6. The System Level
 It is difficult for any political system to
endure if it lacks the support of its
citizens.
◦ Feelings of national pride are considered
an affective, emotional tie to a political
system.
◦ When system legitimacy is high the belief
that the law ought to be obeyed is high.

8. The System Level
 Feelings of popular legitimacy are another
foundation for a successful political system.
◦ Citizens may grant legitimacy to a government
for different reasons.
 Tradition, ideology, elections, or religion
◦ In systems with low legitimacy, people often
resort to violence or extra-governmental actions
to solve political disagreements.

9. The Process Level
 The second level of the political culture involves
what the public expects of the political process.
 Broadly speaking, three different patterns describe
the citizens’ role in the political process.
◦ Participants are involved as actual or potential participants
in the political process.
◦ Subjects passively obey government officials and the law,
but they do not vote or actively involve themselves in
politics.
◦ Parochials are hardly aware of government and politics.

10. Political Culture: Process
Level
 What people expect of the political
process
◦ Participation (equal access vs privileged
access)
◦ Transparency
◦ Corruption as an issue

11. Political Culture: Process
Level
 Attitudes toward the existing form of
government
◦ Representative and direct democracy as
competing political regimes in Venezuela
◦ Rejection of western-style (secular)
democracy by fundamentalist Muslims
 How citizens view their political roles

13. The Policy Level
 What is the appropriate role of government?
◦ Policy expectations vary across the globe.
◦ Some policy goals such as economic well-being are valued
by nearly everyone.
◦ Variation in terms of what is expected relates to a nation’s
circumstances and cultural traditions.
 One of the basic measures of government
performance is its ability to meet the policy
expectations of its citizens.
 Expectations regarding the functioning of
government: outputs (providing welfare and
security) or process features (rule of law and
procedural justice)

15. Consensual or Conflictual
Political Cultures
 When a country is deeply divided in its
political values and these differences
persist over time, distinctive political
subcultures may develop.
◦ They have sharply different points of view on
some critical political matters, such as the
boundaries of the nation, the nature of the
regime, or the correct ideology.
◦ Sometimes historical or social factors will
generate different cultural trajectories.
 Ethnic, religious, or linguistic identities
 Migration

16. Why Culture Matters
 Cultural norms typically change slowly and reflect
stable values.
◦ It encapsulates the history, traditions, and values of a
society.
◦ Congruence theory
 The distribution of cultural patterns is typically related to the
type of political process that citizens expect and support.
 Do democracies create a participatory democratic public, or
does a political culture lead to a democratic political system?
 It works both ways.
◦ Political culture
 can build common political community,
 but it can also have the power to divide.

17. Cultural Congruence
 OVER TIME THERE IS A
CONGRUENCE BETWEEN
POLITICAL CULTURE AND
POLITICAL STRUCTURE
◦ Value placed on
responsiveness/openness leads to:
 Direct election of senators
 Agencies to provide information on previously
classified activities
◦ Longer democracy lasts and more
successes that it has the more support
there is for democracy

18. Political Socialization
 Political cultures are sustained or changed
as people acquire their attitudes and
values.
 Political socialization refers to the way in
which political values are formed and
political culture is transmitted from one
generation to the next.
◦ Most children acquire their basic political values
and behavior patters at a relatively early age.
◦ Some attitudes will evolve and change
throughout life.

20. Political Socialization
 Three general points about
socialization:
◦ Socialization can occur in different ways.
 Direct socialization
◦ Socialization is a lifelong process.
◦ Patterns of socialization can be either
unifying or divisive.

21. Agents of Political Socialization
 Individuals, organizations, and institutions that
influence political attitudes.
◦ Family
◦ Schools
◦ Religious institutions
 Fundamentalism
◦ Peer groups
◦ Social class
◦ Interest groups
◦ Political parties
◦ Mass media
 Global influence; most people in the world watch television to
learn about the world

22. Direct Contact with the
Government
 In modern societies, the wide scope of
governmental activities bring citizens
into frequent contact with bureaucratic
agencies.
 Personal experiences are powerful
agents of socialization.

23. Trends in the Shaping
Contemporary Political Cultures
 Democratization?
 Marketization?
◦ Greater public acceptance of free markets
and private profit incentives, rather than a
government-managed economy
 Globalization

24. Dynamics of Contemporary
Political Cultures
 Political culture is not a static phenomenon.
◦ Encompasses how the agents of political
socialization communicate and interpret historic
events and traditional values
◦ Important to understand
 Influences how citizens act, how the political process
functions, and what policy goals the government pursues