Culture, Cleavages & Participation
I. Culture as a Frame
II. Major Societal Cleavages
III. Cross-Cutting v. Coinciding Cleavages
IV. Dynamics of Political Participation
I.A. Culture as a Frame
 DEFINITION of CULTURE:
 A pattern of shared learned values, beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, modes of living,
customs, & symbols
 Limits to cultural purity: notice that no country’s culture is monolithic; subcultures
and exceptions to the trend both exist
 DEFINITION of POLITICAL CULTURE:
 A pattern of shared learned attitudes, values, & beliefs about politics & political life
 DIMENSIONS of POLITICAL CULTURE:
 Cognitive – perceptions & knowledge about political life
 Affective – beliefs about the importance of politics (or about its lack of importance)
 Evaluative – assessments of the system
o Internal efficacy: do I have the potential to influence political outcomes?
o External efficacy: does the governmental system seem likely to be responsive
when I & others express ourselves?
I.B. Gabriel Almond & Sidney Verba’s CIVIC CULTURE
 Parochial cultures – limited cognitive knowledge, affective interest, & evaluative feelings of
efficacy
 Subject cultures – cognitive knowledge, but a prevailing belief in limited efficacy constraints
political participation
 Participant cultures – high knowledge & interest breed internal efficacy; this tends to lead to
more participation and reinforces internal efficacy
 “THE CIVIC CULTURE” concept – a sublime mix of subject & participant cultures, in
Almond & Verba’s view, avoids overloading the system with too many demands yet
provides essential citizen feedback
I.C. Ronald Inglehart’s POSTMATERIALISM
 For most of human history, most people have focused on their survival and, thus, on
materialist concerns:
 political perceptions, goals, & evaluations tend to focus on pocketbook concerns
(especially for people living from paycheck to paycheck)
 The expansion of affluence to a larger middle-income population in the 20th century opened
the door to broader, postmaterialist concerns about quality of life:
 e.g. civil liberties; family, job, & life satisfaction; environmental decay
 “THE POSTMATERIALIST” concept – With each passing generation, larger segments of
societies (including portions of less affluent countries) will be broadening the lenses through
which they think about their own lives – and, hence, about government’s impact on their
lives
II. Major Societal Cleavages
NOTE: In exploring societal cleavages here, we are looking for politically relevant
distinctions & experiences associated with different interests, values, &/or policy concerns
II.A. Socioeconomic Status (SES)
 SES can unite some & divide others
 economic resources influence individual political wants (and one’s ability to pursue
them)
 economic class can provide a dividing line regarding thoughts about use of public
authority in labor v. management disputes (and public policy more generally)
 shared social position can motivate people to organize politically to retain (or to
attack) any associated privileges
 from the late 20th century forward, SES has been less central as a political cleavage
than it had been for the first 80 years of the 20th century (per postmaterialism)
o But, SES is still relevant
II.B. Region
 A common subnational region can unite residents to mobilize
 to protect regional traditions
 to extract additional financial resources from the national government
 to gain greater political autonomy from the central government
 EXAMPLES?
 Northern League (Italy)
 Dixiecrats (U.S.)
 Scottish National Party (UK)
 various provincial parties in Brazil (and elsewhere in Latin America)
 Alliance for Democracy (Nigerian 4th Republic)
II.C. Ethnicity
 A. Members of ethnic groups can develop a shared identity based on:
 common (presumed) racial ancestry
 common place of residence
 common language
 common customs & practices
 B. As we will discuss shortly, ethnicity becomes more powerful when members of certain
ethnic groups are additionally united by a common position on some or many other
cleavages:
 socioeconomic status, region, religion, ideology, etc.
II.D. Religion
 Religion is a potentially all-encompassing belief system
 divine authority superior to all others in all realms
 by extension, deviation from those norms is heretical:
o should not be tolerated → violates moral code
o cannot be tolerated → toleration implies heresy
 Models of Church-State Relations
 Separation of Church & State
o formal policies that aim at no entrenchment of religion
 e.g. U.S. (albeit amid underlying Judeo-Christian tradition)
 Hybrid model
o freedom of religion & freedom of political authority from religious authority
are combined with some/many policies that entrench &/or favor particular
religions
 most countries in the world fit this profile
 Theocracy
o leaders of organized religion have an institutionalized (& crucial) role in
government
 e.g. the Islamic Republic of Iran established in 1979
II.E. Political Ideology
 Classical Liberalism
 PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
o people are rational & have free will
o people are naturally self-interested
 BASIC TENETS
o political freedom → expansion of political participation
o economic freedom → expansion of market’s role
o emphasis on equality of opportunity rather than of outcomes
 Classical Marxism
 PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
o people are rational
o people’s self-interest is situational:
 class relations define people’s true interests
 BASIC TENETS
o political & economic equality are the source of true freedom
o emphasis on equality of outcome as basis of equality of opportunity
III. Cross-Cutting v. Coinciding Cleavages
 cross-cutting cleavages
 cleavages that generally do not travel together
 coinciding (reinforcing) cleavages
 several/many cleavages travel together:
o people from a certain region or ethnic group share similar SES, language,
religion, and/or ideology
 When several cleavages coincide, sociopolitical tension and conflict tend to be greater than
when cleavages tend to be cross-cutting…
hypothetical examples of cleavage patterns
NORTH
south
URBAN
rural
PROTESTANT
Catholic
AFFLUENT
poor
Largely cross-cutting
Ethnic A
Ethnic B
30%
70%
70%
30%
75%
65%
25%
35%
40%
50%
60%
50%
60%
45%
40%
55%
Fully coinciding
Ethnic A
Ethnic B
100%
0%
100%
0%
100%
0%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
100%
0%
100%
0%
100%
Demographic data on Israel & Palestine
Gaza Strip
Israel
West Bank
population
1.56m
7.23m
2.46m
% Jewish
0%
75%
17%
% Muslim
99%
17%
75%
% urban
72%
92%
72%
16.0/1000
4.2/1000
18.4/1000
$28,400
$2,900 [avg. w/ Gaza]
40%
8%
19%
70% < $1. 08/day
23% < $7.30/day
46% < $1.08/day
infant mortality
GDP/capita [PPP] $2,900 [avg. w/ West Bank]
unemployment
poverty rate
IV. Dynamics of Participation
 Forms of Political Participation
 CONVENTIONAL
o voting
o following politics in the news & in conversation
o joining a political party or interest group
o volunteering for parties & interest groups
o campaigning
o running for office
 UNCONVENTIONAL
o consumer boycotts
o street protests
o strikes
o civil disobedience
o political violence
 Trends in Political Participation
 In wealthy countries
o Voter turnout has declining in the long-running democracies in affluent
countries since the 1970s….
o ….but other forms of political participation (both conventional &
unconventional have been on the rise since the 1970s in those same countries
(Table 9.1 in Newton & Van Deth, p.189)
 Most of that participation involves following & talking about politics
 Elsewhere, in middle-income & low-income countries
o The proliferation of democratic and partially democratic regimes greatly
expanded voter turnout in the 1970s and 1980s….
o …but voter turnout has been declining worldwide in the 21st century
 Causal Influences on Political Participation
 In general, you are more likely to participate if
 You had politically active parents
 Your socioeconomic status is higher
 Your level of education is higher
 Your income is higher
 You are also somewhat more likely to participate if
 Your age is between 35 and 65.
 You have resided in the same community for more than 10 years.
 You are male.
 You have are active in social & community groups.