Political Culture
Where does it come from?
What difference does it make?
Sources of political culture:
Family
Media
Friends
Schools
Affiliations,
Memberships
Region,
Country
Economy
Polity
Global society
What shapes political culture?
Different views:
• Family, school, society through primary
political socialization
• The regime and political system, as a
consequence of the ways in which people
experience it – secondary political
socialization
Different views:
Political culture
Experience with
political system
Society
Political Culture
Some questions and problems:
• Difference between political culture and national
character?
• How can we characterize political culture(s)
• What difference does political culture make?
• Do you need a democratic political culture in
order to sustain democracy?
– If so, what constitutes a democratic political culture?
• Is it sufficient for elites to be committed to
democracy or must ordinary citizens be so
committed as well?
Argument:
• Political culture is one of several factors
which influence how institutions operate,
how political processes play out:
• Political culture is a source both of
problems and resources to solve them
Mass political culture:
• Attitudes and orientations toward leadership
influence the support which different kinds
of leaders (elected or un-elected) will enjoy
• Degree of homogeneity or fragmentation
(e.g. presence or absence of distinct
identities, subcultures) influences the
agenda of politics, the problems with which
political leaders and the system must cope
Some examples:
• The United States:
– the presidential election of 2000: Bush gained authority once the
courts decide that he won
– Responses to 9/11
• Canada: problems of language and region
• Nigeria: problems governing an ethnically and religiously
divided society
– North: Muslim
– East & West: more western, more Christian
• Building democracy in Russia and other ex-Soviet states
Some problems:
• How can a people govern themselves if there is no
agreement on who the people are -- i.e. who
belongs and who does not?
• Must mass and elite be committed to liberal
democracy if liberal democracy is to survive?
• Is political culture cast in stone or does it change?
Sources of change:
• Impact of events – war, invasion, economic
crisis
• Impact of politics and politicians, positive
and negative - can create greater or lesser
trust, hostility
• Social and economic change – emergence of
new classes or groups
• Impact of time and acculturation
Some examples and some questions
• How has Newfoundland and Labrador
political culture changed?
– Is it the same as it was 30 or 50 years ago?
– What would your parents or grandparents say?
• How has Canadian political culture changed
over the last 30-50 years?
– What is constant and what is not?
Reminder:
Annotated bibliography due Friday, Oct 5th
(Paper copy preferred or, failing that,
bibliography submitted in the body of your
message)
Remaking German political
culture:
• Imperial Germany (1871-1918)
– A fragmented and divided society
– prevailing values authoritarian
• The Weimar Republic (1918-1933)
– democratic regime, established following surrender
– highly fragmented
– regime lacked legitimacy: some groups supported it,
others tolerated, but few loved
– aristocracy, business elites, military fail to support
regime when it was challenged
– totalitarian regime established by legal means
Postwar Germany
• Occupied, divided into 4 occupation zones
• Liberal democratic regime established in the
three Western zones
• Communist regime in the eastern (Soviet)
zone
• Problem for both east and west: how to
establish new regimes in a country which
had given fervent support to Nazism
Solutions:
• In the east, the solution is Communism: remake
the economy (end capitalism) and you end Nazism
• In the west, political culture is gradually reshaped:
– Bonn Basic Law (temporary constitution – still in
effect) establishes citizen rights, liberal democratic
order
– West Germans initially quiescent, accepting… proud of
economic achievements
– Holocaust eventually acknowledged, dealt with in
schools
– Political system gains acceptance, in part because of
economic success, stability, integration into Europe
Contemporary Germany:
• Problem of bringing together east and west
• Different experience of ‘Ossies’ and
‘Wessies’
• Problem of who belongs:
– East v west
– Immigrants and refugees
• Question of Germany’s role in the world
Contrasts between Germany and
Austria
•
•
•
•
Austria’s self image as victim
Limited de-nazification
Reluctance to come to terms with Holocaust
Today: far greater support for parties of the
right
Remaking political culture in
countries transiting to democracy:
• What does it take to remake elite political
culture?
• What does it take to remake mass political
culture – if it has to be remade?
Reminder:
Annotated bibliography due Friday, Oct 5th
(Paper copy preferred or, failing that,
bibliography submitted in the body of your
message)