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WHERE DO OUR MOST BASIC POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS COME FROM?

Explore the deep-rooted values, beliefs, and attitudes that shape societies' political cultures, from socialization to media influence, and understand how these factors impact citizens' perceptions and behaviors.

marywarner
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WHERE DO OUR MOST BASIC POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS COME FROM?

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  1. WHERE DO OUR MOST BASIC POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS COME FROM? • What is “political culture”? • A formal definition: A people’s predominant values, beliefs, feelings, and attitudes about the political system of their country and their role in it. Per your text, these are the things “citizens” will die for. • Why do all states have these? Why do all states carefully create these shared experiences… which is to say that governments (any many other institutions) engage in political socialization? • A related concept: The collective memory of the nation • Values (what people hold to be most important) • Beliefs (how people believe things are) • Attitudes (pre-existing judgments about authority, others, and the political system; they “prime”) • Feelings (physical and emotional attachments to ones values, beliefs, and attitudes)

  2. Some “Pew Center” data:

  3. HOW MUCH OF A NATION’S POLITICS CAN ITS CULTURE EXPLAIN? • The American case: Where did the American national culture come from? • Sub-political cultures • Interpretation of the same cultural attributes is often inconsistent • Core political beliefs are often inconsistent with actions • Elite vs. mass political culture • Similar cultural attributes, many institutional arrangements?

  4. HOW DOES POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDY “CULTURE” SCIENTIFICALLY? • The “Civic Culture” (Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba): Citizens vs. clients • Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work and Bowling Alone; Francis Fukuyama: The importance of social trust • Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations • Ronald Inglehart’s “post materialism” • Some major findings from these studies: • Can political culture change over time? Within generations? Yes, but it’s path dependent and typically quick change comes with crisis • Can elites make a new culture in a country? India, race/sexism in the US as examples.

  5. WHERE DOES OUR POLITICAL CULTURE COME FROM? • The role of other “agents of socialization”: family (usually, the most impt), age, and defining moments • How do groups & status shape your beliefs? Gender (the gender gap), race, religion (esp. “suspect” religions), partisanship (as tribal identity) • How do governments manipulate their citizens, esp. their young? Peer pressure and norms outside of the family, learning civic practices, & schools/college (curricula) • How do the media shape what you believe? Americans now spend >10 hrs daily on-line. • Echo chambers and cognitive dissidence • Americans still have very low political sophistication • Most news is about the politics of the moment: personality, negativity, & horse-races

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