This document defines political culture and discusses theories of political culture in liberal democracies and authoritarian countries. It summarizes Almond and Verba's theory of civic culture, which identifies three types of political cultures (parochial, subject, participant) and argues a stable democracy requires a blending of these, especially a majority of participants. It also discusses theories of political trust, social capital, and post-materialism and how governments may respond to political culture.

1. SEM 1, 2014/2015
SECTION 1 AND 2
POLITICAL CULTURE

2. Definition
 Pattern of shared values , moral norms beliefs
and attitudes , and expectations and also
orientation among members of political system.
 Who creates culture ? The citizens. To
understand the tendencies for present and future
behaviours in a country , we must study public
attitudes towards politics and their roles in
political system Nation’s political culture

3. POLITICAL CULTURE IN LIBERAL
DEMOCRACIES
1) THE CIVIC CULTURE [ Almond and Verba]
– did analysis of citizens’ role in political
process in democratic countries.
Three types of pure political culture :
a) Parochial : Citizens’ awareness of central
government is low. Found in isolated
communities – immigrants who do not speak
dominant language. Example : A knows
President is working and living in
Washington DC but he does not know the
job scope of the President and government.

4. Theory of civic culture
Parochial
Subject
Participant
Civic
Cultur
e
STABLE
DEMOC
R-ACY

5. ….
b) Subject – citizens see themselves as
subjects of government. Hence, the young
citizens are not active in politics although
they know that government’s actions affect
their lives.
c) Participant – Citizens believe they can
contribute in political system as they know
that they are affected by government’s
action. For instance, they vote and take part
in referendum. They demand the
government to be accountable for its actions

6. ……CIVIC CULTURE ?
 In Amond and Verba’s view, a stable democracy
is likely to take place in a society blending
different cultures civic culture.
 Civic culture : Many political activists
(participants) but passive minority (parochial and
subjects) stabilise the system.
 HOW ?
 It resolves tensions within democracy between
popular control and effective governance
 It allows for citizens’ influence while retaining
flexibility for the government.

7. ….
 Almond and Verba’s analysis of civic culture:
 1) Was carried out to identify political culture in liberal
democracies
 2) Found that in their analysis of 5 democracies (
USA, Britain , Italy, Mexico and West Germany) ;
Britain and USA came closes to the ideal civic culture.
 Population can be divided into three groups :
parochial, subjects and participants but the size of the
category is not same. US ( Higher subjects and
participants). Mexico, Italy ( higher participants and
parochial - people will feel uninvolved and alienated
from politics)

8. ….CIVIC CULTURE
 Civic culture : “ Citizens felt they could influence the
government but choose not to do so , thus conferring
on government its required agility”
 HOW ?
 Parochialism and subjects would provide foundation
to participants .
 Example : Citizens who are active in politics express
their preference to their rulers but not so involved to
the extent that they refuse to accept decisions which
they disagree – Not too many political demands, and
willing to accept political arrangements.

9. …..
 Civic culture gives the government a measure of
flexibility.
 What about in authoritarian countries ?
 Stability rests on subjects and parochial, the
politically active are ruling elites (minority)

10. POLITICAL TRUSTS AND SOCIAL
CAPITAL
 Issues in democracy, trust to government has
declined. In USA, the number of voter turnout has
declined.
 Study of Social capital
 What is social capital : Culture of trusts and co-
operation which make collective action possible
and effective. Political culture with a fund of social
capital enable communities to build political
institutions that can solve collective problems.
 Low social capital : Elected government is seen
as a threat.

11. …..
Robert Putnam : extend the analysis of political culture
by showing how a supportive social environment
directly enhances the performance and stability of
political system [ analysis in Italy in 1980s]
What did he find ?
1. Culture influenced effectiveness of 20 regional
governments.
a) Successful and developed regions [north]: positive
political culture. High social capital (level of trusts
and co-operation) because of historical factor –
communal self government

12. ….
 What is communal self government ?
Authority delegated by the community to public
officials who are responsible to those whose
affairs are entrusted – population are willing to act
collectively to achieve their shared goals.
B) Least effective government [south] : Low level of
social capital ; low tradition for co-operation. Why
? Long history of feudal, foreign and authoritarian
rule. Citizens are perceived as subjects. Thus
they feel exploited and powerless.

13. NO POLITICAL TRUST ?
Putnam : Trust encourage solidarity among
strangers; the political system can achieve its
shared goals.
Lack of trust/ confidence : People to become less
willing to believe what their leaders say, vote at
elections, and support public programmes in
which they do not see a sure return for
themselves.
Thus, low political trust is likely to promote
unresponsive and ineffective government.

14. POST MATERIALISM
 DEFINED AS : Commitment to radical quality of life
issues (such as the environment) among the young
educated from the personal security and material
affluence.
 Post-materialists participate extensively in politics
but are inclined to join elite-challenging promotional
groups rather than political parties.
 Observation : The more affluent (wealthy) a
democracy, the higher proportion of post-materialists
– mostly young, urban professionals living in
wealthiest states (USA). Not common in poor
countries.
 They were attracted to single-issue groups rather than
to broader packages offered by political parties – elite
challenging advocates.

15. MATERIALISTS VS. POST-
MATERIALISTS VALUES
MATERIALISTS POST-MATERIALISTS
Economic growth
Defense forces
Fights against crime
Maintain order
•The desire for
economic and physical
security
More say in
government
More say in job
Ideas are more
important than money
Freedom of speech
•For post materialist,
having secured
comfortable standard
of living, the objective

16. …
 Inglehart : Different age cohorts (group) have values
that are distinct from one another and remain largely
stable over time. This challenges the idea that
differences in in core beliefs between young and old
exist because people become more conservatives as
they grow older.
 Post materialists - Experience in China
 The students protests that took place in 1980s
culminating with the Tianamen Square 1989 may
have been first sign of culture shift. Hence, Chinese
government encouragement of capitalist economic
development ( economic growth in private sector) is a
double edged sword.

17. ….
 HOW ?
 Government needs economic success to foster
its performance legitimacy – will also foster
increased desire for freedom from government
control. Surveys in China found that post-
materialist values are inherent when most people
emphasized
 “giving people more say in government”
 “giving people more say on the job”
 “freedom of speech” (Cited in World Values
Survey 1990-91)

18. POLITICAL CULTURE IN
AUTHORITARIAN COUNTRIES
 How does government respond to political
culture :
 1) Ignore
 2) Exploit
 3) Reconstruct
 1) Ignore – Isolate mass population to engage
with government and refuse to draw support from
wider culture. Typical in military government.

19. …
 2) Exploit political culture – emphasize on culture
that support their hold on power.
 Pakistan : Military men are perceived as being
less corrupt – saving people. In 2011 poll – 79%
of Pakistanis said “ army brings good influence to
the country”.
 Asia – the concept of Asian democracy is used by
Singapore and Malaysia to present western form
of democracy as alien. In Asian democracy, the
emphasis is given on maintenance or order and
respect to the authority. Singaporean PM said “
western democracy, foreign press, pop music
could bring the country down. The alternative is
Asian democracy” .

20. …
 Malaysia : In year 2000, former PM made a
comment “ the pursuit of democracy could lead to
hardship and anarchy, destroying an otherwise
stable and prosperous society. He also said that
Western nations used democracy and human
rights as tools to decolonise parts of Asia”
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/)

21. …
3) Reconstruct political culture : least common.
Transform political values of their subjects. State
transforms the way people think and behave”
Hitler’s Germany : all textbooks have to
conformed to Nazi’s ideology.
Communist in China : Cultural Revolution
objective is “to challenge peoples thinking;
provide younger party members with an
opportunity to participate in revolutionary activity,
thus revitalising their belief and enthusiasm and
in doing so he would strengthen both his (Mao’s)
own position” .

22. ….
 How ?
 The youths in China were encouraged to criticise
those who Mao deemed untrustworthy with
regards to the direction he wanted China to take :
writers, economists. Further, educational
establishments were considered to be too
academic and, therefore, too elitist.
 Education controlled- guided by Marxism . Learnt
Mao’s thoughts in schools.