Culture & Political Culture

1. Culture = society’s broad sense of shared values, beliefs, norms, and orientations toward the world • Political Culture= (more specific) society’s shared values, beliefs, norms, and orientations toward politics • How people think about political system, decision-making process, and their role in politics • Three primary approaches: • Social Character, Congruence, Social Capital Culture & Political Culture

2. Deeply held cultural beliefs become embedded in state institutions • E.g., differences in behavior and beliefs between American colonies and Canada explain why two countries developed very different political institutions • Uses wide range of evidence, including survey questions • Important for understanding kinds of beliefs that help create and sustain effective democracy Social Character Approach

3. Congruence between country’s political culture and institutions • What political culture necessary to maintain stable democratic institutions? • Almond and Verba: mix of citizen involvement in politics is best • Participants - do not do much more than vote • Subjects - obey laws but are not politically active • Parochial - ignorant about politics • Inglehart and Welzel: activist political culture important to maintain effective democracy • Self-expression values key (freedom of speech, tolerance, trust in others) • Provide motivations to speak out and challenge authoritarian systems • Create societal bridging behavior, rather than bonding Congruence Approach

4. Bridging Behavior Bonding Behavior People identify with their “in-group” based on ethnicity, race, language, or religion and discriminate against outsiders Views people as “in-groups” and “out-groups,” not as individuals Weakens generalized trust • Based on mutually agreed interests and empathy for others • Views people as individuals, not “in-groups” and “out-groups” • Strengthens generalized trust Bridging vs. Bonding

5. Why people manage to collaborate in some societies, but not in others • Social Capital = ability of members in a group to cooperate, based on “trust among people in a society and their ability to work together for common purposes” (Hamilton, xvii) • Social Dilemma = even if all understand the need for cooperation, it will only come about if individuals trust that others are also going to cooperate (e.g., tax collection in Russia vs. Sweden) • Societies require generalized trust to achieve cooperation, the belief that most people can be trusted outside of one’s close family and friends; accomplished through bridging behavior • Generalized Reciprocity = trust will be reciprocated in future, not just in the present • Has a mutually-reinforcing relationship with institutional performance Social Capital Approach

6. Approaches Compared

7. Individuals have multiple identities • The relative importance of these identities varies from culture to culture • Three identities play especially important roles in politics, driving political competition over recognition and government resources • Ethnicity • Nationality • Religion Politics of Identity

8. “A sense of collective belonging based on language, history, culture, religion” (Varshney 275) • Very few countries ethnically homogeneous • First and foremost a social identity • Three trends account for political importance of ethnicity in advanced democracies • Increasing ethnic diversity • Rise of identity politics • Adoption of multicultural policies Ethnicity

9. Political struggles based on ethnicity can be pursued peacefully, within confines of political institutions • In some countries these conflicts can lead to violence: • Mob violence • Forcible removals of one ethnic group from a territory • Removal of Native Americans to reservations in the US • Genocide • The Holocaust; Rwandan genocide (1994) Ethnicity & Conflict

10. Sense of pride in one’s nation and desire to control a sovereign political/territorial state representing that nation • Nation = group of people sharing a common identity that derives from either having a state of their own or desiring to do so • Unlike ethnicity, nationalism is inherently political Nationalism

11. Religious identity not inherently political, but has become the basis of political conflict and violence in many countries • Hindus and Muslims in India • Three explanations exist for why violence erupts among ethnic, national, and religious groups • Primordialism • Instrumentalism • Constructivism Religion

12. Explaining Identity Violence

13. Political culture affects capabilities when it is used to construct ethnic or racial categories that privilege some people and penalize others • In many Latin American countries biased political cleavages have been created between descendants of Spaniards and indigenous peoples; Latin American countries with high percentages of indigenous people have highest levels of inequality • Citizens living in countries with high levels of generalized trust are more likely to be tolerant toward people different from themselves and support providing resources and opportunities to develop their capabilities • Societies that share narratives extending a citizen’s moral community beyond their immediate family, ethnic, or racial group promote better overall health and societal support Political Culture, Identity, and the Good Society

14. Do higher levels of generalized trust promote higher levels of capabilities? • Modest support for hypothesis when looking at indicators such as infant mortality, literacy, and crime rates • Numerous alternative explanations and outliers • No relationship between generalized trust and democracy Generalized Trust and the Good Society