trad itional onal orientation or ientation of the citizens of a nation toward politics, affecting Political culture is the traditi [1] their perceptions of political legitimacy. legitimacy.
Contents [hide hide]]
1 Conceptions 1.1 As political philosophy o 2 Ideological perspectives 2.1 Anarchism o 2.2 Tory corporatism o 2.3 Oligarchy o 2.4 Classical liberalism o 2.5 Radical liberalism o 2.6 Democratic socialism o 2.7 Fascist corporatism o 3 Types 3.1 Almond and Verba o 3.2 Lijphart o 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading
Conceptions In the early 1960s two Americans Americans Gabriel Almond and S idney Verba outlined three pure t ypes of political culture in Great Britain Britain can combine to create' civic culture. These three key features expressed by both men were composed in order to establish the link between t he public and the government. The first of these features is Deference which looks at the respect, acknowledgment or inferiority of authority and superiors in society. In the 1950s a prominent example of Deference was a greater amount of approbation appro bation or inferiority for the Police service. We know this due to lower levels of crime sixty years ago. In comparison to Deference towards the Police Service today we can notice significant change. The amount of o f respect has decreased for the service because of higher levels of anti social behaviour in society, notably knife and gun crime. Today some people see the t he Police as a burden on cert ain freedoms they wish to exercise and as a result resent there cause of crime watch and de fenders of the rule of law, this idea that some people in society adopt can be shown as an area where Deference has broken down in twenty first century Britain. Another key example of Deference in British Political culture is the understanding and positives of the United Kingdom ha ving a Monarchy and not a Republic. This is an understanding that dates far back and has been represented not just as Political Culture, but general culture. Lastly, another area were Deference needs to be mended in the British political political culture of 2010 is a resounding d istrust istrust in Politicians. In the 1950s large amounts of the public agreed to Partisan alignment with another Poli Po litical tical Party and felt a psycho logical attachment to
its views. This resulted in higher numbers of voters at t he ballot box and record culmination in the 1950 General Election which saw 84% of the nation voting. From this evidence it is clear that in the past people had hea vier trust in Politicians and trust in Politics as a whole. Today many people have lost that sense of belonging to a party and assurance in those who represent their constituency. The second key feature is Consensus. Consensus represents the key link between government and public agreement and appease ment. The appeasement may not always be shared with the whole nation but as a whole people agree to sustain it, meaning it is a common agreement. There are various Examples of Consensus in British Political culture; How we are governed as a whole, agreement on the welfare state, an agreement to whom the powers governed by head of state go to. A main example can be the common agreement of our Political voting system known as 'first past the post'. Although some groups of people may disagree with its method of selecting an overall winner, it is a system that has been acknowledged a nd used to determine which party governs our country. Another Consensus is the understanding that our country is conducted centrally from Westminster in London and that they firmly uphold a 'strong government'. The country also acknowledges the fundamental needs o f the poor and deprived, with the establishment of a welfare state. In the 1970s many of Britain's primary industries were under nationalization and state ruled. This offered fixed rates for all and an e lement of Socialist fairness but was seen as lacking general market competition from the capitalistic right wing of British Politics and so in the 1980s under t he Conservative Prime minister Margaret Thatcher main industries such as 'British Telecom' and the 'National Railway' were Privatised and sold o ff to become part of private companies. This idea of privatizing industry was not something which was dominantly agreed upon,(particularly on the left wing of British politics) but it was endorsed and supported for the sake of better contention. The third features of British Political Culture is Homegenity which emphasizes the point that in the 1950s we were more alike than different. People in general in the 1950s in Britain came under a category of white race, Christian and British heritage, the Monarchy was admired sufficiently more by a larger range o f ages, people attended church frequently and the Union Jack flag depicting Great Britain as one, was actively used in International sports matches. Today, Britain is considered a Multicultural society and a 'Do minant Political Culture sharing similar beliefs and policies regarding the welfare state and national health system. Also accept ing all races and different ethnic minorities to be part of the co untries community. Christianity today amongst white, English families does not play such a crucial role i n their lives, and church attendance as a whole is decreasing. Today Britain prefers to depict itself more separately by supporting the individual flags of the home nat ions of England St Georges Cross, Northern Ireland's Ulster banner, Scotland's St Andrews cross and t he Welsh red dragon. This individual and selective support has led to nations within the British Isles such as Scotland and Wales desire independence to become its own state.
[edit] As political philosophy
Political culture is a distinctive and patterned form of political philosophy that consists of beliefs on how governmental, political, and economic life should be carried out. Political cultures create a framework for political change and are unique to nations, state, and other groups. A political culture differs from political ideology in that people can disagree on an ideology (what government should do) but still share a common political culture. Some ideologies, however, are so critical of the status quo that they require a fundamental change in the way government is operated, and therefore embody a different political culture as well. The term political culture was brought into political science to promote the American po litical system. The concept was used by Gabriel Almond in late 50s, and outlined in The Civic Culture (1963, Almond & Verba), but was soon opposed by two European political scientists - Gerhard Lehmbruch and Arend Lijphart. Lehmbruch analysed politics in Switzerland and Austria and Lijphart analysed politics in Netherlands. Both argued that there are political systems that are [2] more stable than the one in the USA.
[edit] Ideological perspectives [edit] Anarchism
Main article: Anarchism An anarchist political culture only exists in small societies in which t here are no strangers. Every person has face to face accountability, and will have to continue to live together. The paradigms about society and the role of the individual are shared strongly among all of its members. In suc h a society institutions of government are not necessary. Family contacts and t heir constant reinforcement through personal contact hold the single-cu lture society together. [edit] Tory corporatism
Main article: Tory corporatism A tory corporatist political culture presumes that responsibility to the group is more important than individual needs and desires. Tradition is the justification of the tory culture. The immediate family connections form its basis. The corporatist culture takes coo peration as far more important than competition. [edit] Oligarchy
Main article: Oligarchy Oligarchy is a political culture in which elite, ruling c lass families maintain a monopoly over the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government, thereby removing the decision making process from the population at large. [edit] Classical liberalism
Main article: Classical liberalism The classical liberal political culture is not based on tradition as tory corporatism and oligarchy are. It is based in rationality. It takes the individual as the basic unit of society and is co mpetitive rather than cooperative. [edit] Radical liberalism
Main article: Radical liberalism The radical liberal shares all of the same paradigms as t he classical liberal, however it differs in that its hierarchical nature does not apply to its elections, and its competitive nature is more limited. [edit] Democratic socialism
Main article: Democratic socialism The democratic socialist political ideology is based on t he belief that the government is ultimately responsible for progressing social and economic equality. Democratic Socialists tend [citation needed ] to hold Skinnerian perspectives towards human development and behavior and t hus call for government programs to equalize development as much as possible in order to encourage equality and provide equal oppo rtunity to all citizens. Attempts to be more egalitarian. Plato's Republic outlined an extreme form of Democratic So cialism. [edit] Fascist corporatism
Main article: Fascist corporatism While the tory corporatist culture is established and on-going, t he fascist corporatist attempts to create such a culture by force. The tory takes tradition as the legitimate basis of society, while the fascist makes some form of appeal to rationality. The fascist attempts to recreate the conditions of tory corporatism as a response to Leninist socialism.
[edit] Types [edit] Almond and Verba According to their level and type of political participation and the nature of people's attitudes toward politics, Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba outlined three pure types of po litical culture:
Parochial - Where citizens are only remotely aware of the presence of centra l government, and live their lives near enough regardless of the decisions taken by the state. Distant and unaware of political phenomena. He has neither knowledge or interest in politics. In general congruent with a tradit ional political structure.
Subject - Where citizens are aware of central government, and are heavily subjected to its decisions with little scope for dissent. The individual is aware of politics, its actors and institutions. It is affectively oriented towards politics, yet he is on the "downward flow" side of the politics. In general congruent with a c entralized authoritarian structure. Participant - Citizens are able to influence the government in various ways and they are affected by it. The individual is oriented toward t he system as a whole, to both the political and administrative structures and processes (to both the input and output aspects). In general congruent with a democratic po litical structure.
These three 'pure' types of political culture can combine to create the 'civic culture', which mixes the best elements of each. [3]
[edit] Lijphart By Arend Lijphart, there are different classifications of political culture: 1. classification:
Political culture of masses Political culture of the elite(s)
2. classification (of political culture of the elites):
coalitional contradictive
Lijphart also classified structure of the society:
homogeneous heterogeneous Structure of society (right)
homogeneous
heterogeneous
Political culture of elites (down) coalitional contradictive
depoliticalised democracy consociative democracy centripetal democracy
[edit] See also
Political culture of the United States of America Political culture of Canada Political culture of Germany Political culture of the United Kingdom
centrifugal democracy
[edit] References 1. ^ Page with definitions 2. ^ Lukšič, Igor (2006). Politična kultura, p.40-42. FDV, Ljubljana. Retrieved on June 29, 2007. 3. ^ Almond, Gabriel; Verba, Sidney (1963), The Civic Culture, Boston: Little, Brown and Company
[edit] Further reading
Almond, Gabriel A., Verba, Sidney The Civic Culture. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1965. Aronoff, Myron J. “Political Culture,” in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, eds., (Oxford: Elsevier, 2002), 11640. Axelrod, Robert. 1997. “The Dissemination of Culture: A Model with Loca l Convergence and Global
Polarization.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 41:203-26. nyfutdrysetasrdtufyguhigufydtsryaetrsdfguhiigufiyudtsyrtdufyguh
Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. Bednar, Jenna and Scott Page. 2007. “Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture? The Emergence of Cultural
Behavior within Multiple Games” Rationality and Society 19(1):65-97.
Clark, William, Matt Golder, and Sona Golder. 2009. Principles of Comparative Government. CQ Press. Ch. 7 Diamond, Larry (ed.) Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries. Greif, Avner. 1994. “Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Co llectivist and Individualist Societies.” The Journal of Political Economy 102(5): 912-950. Kertzer, David I. Politics and Symbols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. Kertzer, David I. Ritual, Politics, and Power . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988. Kubik, Jan. The Power of Symbols Against The Symbols of Power . University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994. Inglehart, Ronald and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural C hange and Democracy. New York: o
Cambridge University Press, 2005. Ch. 2
Laitin, David D. Hegemony and Culture. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1986. Igor Lukšič, Politična kultura. Ljubljana: The University of Ljubljana, 2006. Wilson, Richard W. "The Many Voices of Political Culture: Assessing Different Approaches," in World Politics 52 (January 2000), 246-73 [hide]v · d · ePolitical culture Political scienc e portal
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