Political Culture and Ideology
Applying the Principles of the
Declaration of Independence
Major Themes of the Declaration of
Independence
Self evident truths
We hold these truths to be self-evident
Human equality
All men are created equal
They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights
Natural rights
Among these rights:
Life
Liberty
Pursuit of happiness
Purpose of gov’t
To secure rights
Measure of Justice
Consent of the governed
Right of revolution
Limits to the
right of revolution
Whenever any form of gov’t is destructive of the security of natural
rights
Prudence:
Long-established gov’ts shouldn’t be overthrown for “light and transient causes”
Experience:
Men are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right
themselves
Political Culture
• A general set of Ideas, attitudes and beliefs
• Shapes a region’s politics
• Political Cultures in the US may identify with certain
principles in the Declaration of Independence
• Political culture sometimes confused with ideology
• Most communities in the US participate in at least one of
the following:
– Traditionalism
– Individualism
– Moralism
Traditionalism
Basic features
Associated region
Advantages
Disadvantages
•Strong attachment
to long-established
institutions
•Preference for
traditional ‘modes
and orders’
•Suspicion of
change
•Family legacies
The “Old South”:
South Carolina
North Carolina
Virginia
Tennessee
Georgia
Mississippi
Alabama
Louisiana
Texas
Stability
Predictability
Laws and
customs tend to
remain constant
Inflexibility
Lack of social mobility
Tolerance of corruption in
the public sector
Hostility to reform
Fatalism
Examples:
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“You can’t fight city hall.”
Uncontested elections
Political Dynasties (Bush, Thurmond, Moncrieff, Kennedy)
Individualism
Basic features
Associated region
•Strong belief in
self-reliance
•Preference for
individual and
independent action;
free enterprise
•Suspicion of public
institutions
•Resistance to
regulation
•“The Self-Made
Man”
The “Old West”:
Wyoming
Texas
Colorado
New Mexico
Arizona
Nevada
Montana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Advantages
Opportunity
Privacy
Recognition of
individual efforts
Accountability
Disadvantages
Isolation
Lack of community support
Intolerance of public sector
involvement
Tolerance of corruption in
the private sector, provided
one isn’t caught
Examples:
“You’ll get my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands.”
“You’ve got nobody to blame but yourself.”
Entrepreneurs, independent contractors
“Caveat emptor”
Moralism
Basic features
Associated region
Advantages
•Strong belief in
community,
“commonwealth”
•Preference for
formal community
action
•Suspicion of private
institutions and
interests
•Strong regulatory
presence
“New England”:
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Maine
New York
Pennsylvania
Also prevalent in
the Pacific NW
and in capital
cities
Community
Accountability
Active social
support
structures
“safety nets”
Examples:
“Did you bring enough for everybody?”
“We’re from the government and we’re here to help you.”
Social Security, social welfare programs
Public education programs
Disadvantages
•Intrusiveness
•Tolerance of corruption in the
public sector if it serves the
“moral duty” of serving the
commonwealth
•Inaction unless initiated by
community officials
•High public debt; high taxes
Political Culture v. Ideology
• Political Culture
• A set of general
attitudes, ideas
and beliefs
• Broadly informs
and shapes a
region’s politics
• Ideology
• A set of specific
attitudes, ideas
and beliefs
• Provides or
advocates a
coherent plan for
social, political, or
economic action
Examples of ideologies
• Economic ideologies
• Political ideologies
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Libertarianism
Liberalism
Conservatism
Anarchism
Socialism
Fascism
Communism
Communitarianism
Statism
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
capitalism
communism
globalism
protectionism
Keynesianism
monetarism
Market fundamentalism
• Social ideologies
–
–
–
–
–
–
Tribalism
Ethnocentrism
Nationalism
Feminism
Multiculturalism
Supremacism
What ideology Is
• A set of specific ideas, attitudes and
beliefs
• Provides or advocates a coherent plan for
social, political, or economic action
• Plan is consistent with, and is explained in
terms of, the ideas, attitudes and beliefs
held
What ideology is not:
• Ideology is not political culture
– Traditionalists are not necessarily conservatives
– Liberals are not necessarily moralists
• Ideology is not partisanship
– Democrats are not necessarily liberal
– Republicans are not necessarily conservative
• Ideology is not a policy position
– E.g. Abortion
• advocates are not necessarily libertarian or liberal
• opponents are not necessarily conservative or libertarian
– E.g. Immigration
• “Open border” advocates are not necessarily libertarian globalists
• “Closed border” advocates are not necessarily conservative ethnocentrists
Comparative Ideology 1:
Left and Right Wings
Motto of the French Revolution:
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
(liberty, equality, brotherhood)
Origins in the
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National
Assembly
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Revolutionary
Advocates
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Liberté
sympathetic
Libertéand
andFraternité,
Egalité, opposing
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19th Century
Left and Right: The Political Spectrum
The most common comparative model of ideological preference in the US
Left Wing
Communism Socialism Liberalism Centrism Conservatism Statism
Right Wing
Fascism