Political Culture and Socialization (System Level)

1. Political Culture and Socialization(System Level) Introduction to Comparative Politics

2. Political Culture and Political Socialization • Each nation has its own political norms that influence how people think and act about politics. • The way political institutions function at least partially reflects the public’s attitudes, norms, and expectations. • Political culture: public attitudes toward politics and their role within the political system • Political socialization: • how individuals form their political attitudes and • collectively, how citizens form their political culture; we conclude by describing the major trends in political culture in the world politics today • Major tends in political cultures of states will be final concern

4. Mapping the Three Levels of Political Culture • A nation’s political culture includes its citizens’ orientations at three levels: • The political system • The political and policymaking process • Policy outputs and outcomes

5. Mapping the Three Levels of Political Culture • The system level involves how people view the values and organizations that comprise the political system. • The process level includes expectations of how politics should function and individuals’ relationship to the political process. • The policy level deals with the public’s policy expectations for the government.

6. The System Level • It is difficult for any political system to endure if it lacks the support of its citizens. • Feelings of national pride are considered an affective, emotional tie to a political system. • When system legitimacy is high the belief that the law ought to be obeyed is high.

8. The System Level • Feelings of popular legitimacy are another foundation for a successful political system. • Citizens may grant legitimacy to a government for different reasons. • Tradition, ideology, elections, or religion • In systems with low legitimacy, people often resort to violence or extra-governmental actions to solve political disagreements.

9. The Process Level • The second level of the political culture involves what the public expects of the political process. • Broadly speaking, three different patterns describe the citizens’ role in the political process. • Participants are involved as actual or potential participants in the political process. • Subjects passively obey government officials and the law, but they do not vote or actively involve themselves in politics. • Parochials are hardly aware of government and politics.

10. Political Culture: Process Level • What people expect of the political process • Participation (equal access vs privileged access) • Transparency • Corruption as an issue

11. Political Culture: Process Level • Attitudes toward the existing form of government • Representative and direct democracy as competing political regimes in Venezuela • Rejection of western-style (secular) democracy by fundamentalist Muslims • How citizens view their political roles

13. The Policy Level • What is the appropriate role of government? • Policy expectations vary across the globe. • Some policy goals such as economic well-being are valued by nearly everyone. • Variation in terms of what is expected relates to a nation’s circumstances and cultural traditions. • One of the basic measures of government performance is its ability to meet the policy expectations of its citizens. • Expectations regarding the functioning of government: outputs (providing welfare and security) or process features (rule of law and procedural justice)

15. Consensual or ConflictualPolitical Cultures • When a country is deeply divided in its political values and these differences persist over time, distinctive political subcultures may develop. • They have sharply different points of view on some critical political matters, such as the boundaries of the nation, the nature of the regime, or the correct ideology. • Sometimes historical or social factors will generate different cultural trajectories. • Ethnic, religious, or linguistic identities • Migration

16. Why Culture Matters • Cultural norms typically change slowly and reflect stable values. • It encapsulates the history, traditions, and values of a society. • Congruence theory • The distribution of cultural patterns is typically related to the type of political process that citizens expect and support. • Do democracies create a participatory democratic public, or does a political culture lead to a democratic political system? • It works both ways. • Political culture • can build common political community, • but it can also have the power to divide.

17. Cultural Congruence • OVER TIME THERE IS A CONGRUENCE BETWEEN POLITICAL CULTURE AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE • Value placed on responsiveness/openness leads to: • Direct election of senators • Agencies to provide information on previously classified activities • Longer democracy lasts and more successes that it has the more support there is for democracy

18. Political Socialization • Political cultures are sustained or changed as people acquire their attitudes and values. • Political socialization refers to the way in which political values are formed and political culture is transmitted from one generation to the next. • Most children acquire their basic political values and behavior patters at a relatively early age. • Some attitudes will evolve and change throughout life.

20. Political Socialization • Three general points about socialization: • Socialization can occur in different ways. • Direct socialization • Socialization is a lifelong process. • Patterns of socialization can be either unifying or divisive.

21. Agents of Political Socialization • Individuals, organizations, and institutions that influence political attitudes. • Family • Schools • Religious institutions • Fundamentalism • Peer groups • Social class • Interest groups • Political parties • Mass media • Global influence; most people in the world watch television to learn about the world

22. Direct Contact with the Government • In modern societies, the wide scope of governmental activities bring citizens into frequent contact with bureaucratic agencies. • Personal experiences are powerful agents of socialization.

23. Trends in the Shaping Contemporary Political Cultures • Democratization? • Marketization? • Greater public acceptance of free markets and private profit incentives, rather than a government-managed economy • Globalization

24. Dynamics of Contemporary Political Cultures • Political culture is not a static phenomenon. • Encompasses how the agents of political socialization communicate and interpret historic events and traditional values • Important to understand • Influences how citizens act, how the political process functions, and what policy goals the government pursues