Political Cultures
Political ideology – a system of political ideas, developed for the
purposes of political action (governing a country, launching a social
movement or a political party, organizing a revolution – or a
counterrevolution, etc.)
Political culture
the broad pattern of political orientations shared by a large group of
people (a nation, a region, a class, an ethnic group)
Three levels of political culture*
System
Pride in a nation
National identity
Legitimacy of government
Process
Principles of government
Role of citizens
People’s basic political beliefs
Policy
Role of government
Government policy priorities
-----------------------------------------*See Gabriel Almond, Bingham Powell, Kaare Strom, Russell Dalton, Comparative Politics Today: A World
View. 7th edition. New York: Longman, 2000, p.50
Feelings of national pride (%% feeling “very proud” or “proud” of their
countries)*
90-100%:
80-90%:
70-80%:
60-70%:
50-60%:
USA, Australia, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, Slovenia
Norway, Sweden, China, UK, Nigeria, Brazil
France, Switzerland, Russia
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Japan
Germany
*See Almond et al., p.50
WHAT THINGS DO YOU VALUE MOST ABOUT BEING CANADIAN?

Freedom/choices: 59%

Beauty/geography/climate/resources: 23%

Health care/medical system: 20%

Quality of life: 18%

Opportunities/economic stability: 12%

Peaceful/no war: 10%

Multiculturalism/tolerance: 10%

Democratic country: 8%

People friendly/polite/kind: 8%

Safety/low crime rate: 7%

Social programs: 7%

International reputation: 7%

Good country (general): 6%

Education system: 6%

Clean: 3%

Born here/identity: 3%

Bilingual: 2%

Negative comments: 2%
(Environics poll, 1997)
Canadian values (as described by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO)*:
 the promotion of culture and democracy through the sharing of ideas and
knowledge;
 justice and equality for all;
 freedom of thought, expression and communication;
 the promotion of tolerance;
 access to education and information;





the affirmation of specific cultures and identities as integral parts of the
richness of humanity;
a respect for indigenous cultures;
and the preservation of the world's heritage and natural environment.
----------------------------------*A Code of Ethics/Values for Countries, Governments, Businesses. http://www.peace.ca/codeofethics.htm
National pride does not come from affluence
What matters is a sense of history – every generation has its own readings of it –
and its own historical myths
Patriotism is a double-edged sword (“the last refuge of a scoundrel” – Samuel
Johnson)
National identity – a sense of a nation’s (ethnic group’s) uniqueness, particular
qualities, place in the world, role in history
Also a double-edged sword: “us vs. them”
Legitimacy of government defines fundamental understanding between citizens
and authorities
High legitimacy makes society easier to govern, reduces conflicts in society
Low legitimacy has opposite effects
The Process Level
Principles of government
Major global question of the 20th century: democracy or authoritarianism?
Solved in favour of democracy
The next major global question: how to make democracy work?
Role of citizens
3 types of citizen role, 3 types of political culture:
participants – informed about politics, make political demands, expect
politicians to deliver public goods
subjects – passively obey the government and laws
parochials* – are barely aware that the state exists
----------*From “parish” – local church community
Industrial democracies are generally characterized by the dominance of the
participant orientation, although both subjects and parochials are present, too.
In a preindustrial democracy (example – India), even though democratic
institutions are present, most citizens behave as subjects or parochials
In communist countries (authoritarian industrial), the level of political participation
is usually high, but the vast majority of citizens act as subjects – in the
absence of real political freedoms. Few citizens are allowed to be parochial:
the state draws people into politics.
In some democracies, too, voting is obligatory
The concept of civic culture (Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba,
1958):
democracy is stable when there is a mix of participant, subject and
parochial cultures
That is: too much participation exacerbates conflicts in society
People should be free to opt out of political life
The policy level
The policy level of a political culture describes public attitudes to the role and
functions of government
These attitudes differ from country to country:
%% agreeing that the government should ensure everyone is provided for*:
60-70% range: Chile, Latvia, Nigeria
50-60% range: Hungary, Turkey, Spain, Lithuania
40-50% range: Italy, Poland, Britain, Russia, Mexico, China
30-40% range: Argentina, Netherlands
20-30% range: South Korea, Germany, Canada, France
Below 20%: USA
--------------------------------------See Gabriel Almond et al., Op.cit., p.54
Conflict and consensus
Some political cultures are conflictual
Others, consensual (characterized by high levels of consensus in society about
basic political values and principles)
Existence of consensus does not mean absence of conflict: one can have
consensus (rules) as to how to wage and manage conflicts
Subcultures
Within national political cultures, there are subcultures, characterizing political
attitudes of different groups within society. In conflictual cultures, there are
deep rifts between subcultures
The rifts are caused by such factors as:
Class
Ethnicity or race
Religion
Regional differences
Civilizations
 “Civilization” in the singular:
 French 18th-century usage: “civilization” as opposed to “barbarism”. Connotes
“modern society”
 In the broadest terms, “the human civilization” as a product of development of the
human species – there may exist other civilizations on other planets
 “Civilizations” in the plural:
The largest, longest-living, transnational cultural entities which have emerged
at different stages of history in different parts of the world
Samuel Huntington:
 “A civilization is the broadest cultural entity. Villages, regions,
ethnic groups, nationalities, religious groups all have distinct
cultures at different levels of cultural heterogeneity. The culture of a
village in southern Italy may be different from that of a village in
northern Italy, but both will share in a common Italian culture that
distinguishes them from German villages. European communities,
in turn, will share cultural features that distinguish them from
Chinese or Hindu communities. Chinese, Hindus, and Westerners,
however, are not part of any broader cultural entity. They constitute
civilizations…
A civilization thus is the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest
level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans
from other species. It is defined both by common objective elements, such as
language, history, religion, customs, institutions, and by the subjective selfidentification of people. People have levels of identity: a resident of Rome may
define himself with varying degrees of intensity as a Roman, an Italian, a
Catholic, a Christian, A European, a Westerner. The civilization to which he
belongs is the broadest level of identification with which he strongly identifies.
Civilizations are the biggest “we” within which we feel culturally at home as
distinguished from all the other “thems” out there.”*
-----------------------------*Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Touchstone Books,
1997, p.43
“A civilization… is neither a given economy nor a given society, but
something which can persist through a series of economies and
societies, barely susceptible to gradual change. A civilization can
be approached, therefore, only in the long term, taking hold of a
constantly unwinding thread – something that a group of people
have conserved and passed on as their most precious heritage
from generation to generation, throughout and despite the storms
and tumults of history.”
Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilizations, translated by Richard Mayne. Pengui Books, 1993,
p.35




Civilizations emerge in the course of history under the combined
impact of various factors:*
Geographic – different types of interactions between man and the
natural environment
Sociological – different types of societies (rural or urban, degrees
of inequality, etc.)
Economic – what technologies are used, how productive is human
labour, how wealth is distributed, etc.
Mental – different ways of thought and belief
*See Braudel, pp.9-23
Braudel again:
“In every period, a certain view of the world, a collective mentality, dominates
the whole mass of society. Dictating a society’s attitudes, guiding its choices,
confirming its prejudices and directing its actions, this is very much a fact of
civilization. Far more than the accidents or the historical and social
circumstances of a period, it derives from the distant past, from ancient beliefs,
fears and anxieties which are almost unconscious – an immense
contamination whose germs are lost to memory but transmitted from
generation to generation. A society’s reactions to the events of the day, to the
pressure upon it, to the decisions it must face, are less a matter of logic or
even self-interest than the response to and unexpressed and often
unexpressible compulsion arising from the collective unconscious…
These basic values, these psychological structures, are assuredly
the features that civilizations can least easily communicate one to
another. They are what isolate and differentiate them most sharply.
And such habits of mind survive the passage of time. They change
little, and change slowly, after a long incubation which itself is
largely unconscious, too.
Here religion is the strongest feature of civilizations, at the heart of
both their present and their past. And in the first place, of course, in
civilizations outside Europe.” *
*Braudel, p.22
Huntington offers this typology of major contemporary civilizations:
 Chinese (Sinic) – from at least 1500 BCE
nd th
 Japanese – from 2 -5 centuries CE
 Hindu – from at least 1500 BCE
th
 Islamic – from 7 century CE
st
 Orthodox (now centered in Russia) – from 1 century CE
th th
 Western – from 8 -9 centuries CE
th
 Latin American – from… Western influence from the 15 century
 African – from… Western influence from the
Some major trends in contemporary political cultures:
Political cultures change slowly, but they do evolve under the impact of many
factors
Modernization continues, penetrating and reshaping societies around the world
Development of post-modern values, especially among the young (social
equality, protection of the environment, cultural diversity, personal selfexpression, etc.)
The resurgence of ethnicity
The new politics of faith: rise of religious political movements and parties
Clash of civilizations?
The spread of democratic values
Growing support for market systems