Political Culture and Socialization (System Level)

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Political Culture and Socialization(System
Level)

• Introduction to Comparative Politics

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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 publics 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

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Mapping the Three Levels of Political Culture

• A nations political culture includes its
  citizens orientations at three levels
• The political system
• The political and policymaking process
• Policy outputs and outcomes

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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 publics policy
  expectations for the government.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Political Culture Process Level

• What people expect of the political process
• Participation (equal access vs privileged access)
• Transparency
• Corruption as an issue

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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

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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 nations 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)

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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