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Comparative Politics and Government

Notes following constitutional procedures in their actions. In other political cultures, the leaders may
base their claim to legitimacy on their special grace, wisdom, or ideology, which they claim will
transform citizens’ lives for the better, even though the government does not respond to specific
demands or follow prescribed procedures.
Whether legitimacy is based on tradition, ideology, citizen participation, or specific policies, the
basis of legitimacy defines the fundamental understanding between citizens and political authorities.
Citizens obey the laws—and in return the government meets the obligations set by the terms of its
legitimacy. As long as the government meets its obligations, the public is supposed to comply, be
supportive, and act appropriately. If legitimacy is violated—the line of succession is broken, the
constitution is subverted, or the ruling ideology is ignored—then the government may expect
resistance and perhaps rebellion.
In systems with low legitimacy or where the claimed bases for legitimacy are not accepted, people
often resort to violence to solve political disagreement. Legitimacy may be undermined where the
public disputes boundaries of the political, system (as in Northern Ireland or East Timor) rejects
the current arrangements for recruiting leaders and making policies (as when Filipinos took to the
streets and demanded the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos and free elections) or loses confidence that
the leaders are fulfilling their part of the political bargain in making the right kinds of laws or
following the right procedures (as when Indonesians protested deteriorating of living conditions
under Sukarno).
The Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s because all three kinds of legitimacy problems
appeared. After Communist ideology failed as a legitimizing force, there was no basis for a national
political community in the absence of common language or ethnicity. Similarly, the general loss of
confidence in the Communist Party as the dominating political structure led many people to call
for new arrangements. Finally, shortages of food and consumer goods caused people to lose faith
in the government’s short-term economic and political policies. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
failed in his efforts to deal with all three problems at the same time.
Another systemic orientation involves regime norms. In the early twentieth century a variety of
political systems divided the world. Fascism was on the rise in Europe, communism was establishing
itself in the Soviet Union, colonial administrations governed large parts of the world, monarchical
or authoritarian governments ruled other parts of the world, and Western Europe and North
America strained to maintain democracy in this sea of conflicting currents.
Today, many of these forms of governance are no longer widely accepted. Communism still has
strong holds in China and Cuba, but it has lost its image as a progressive force for global change.
Some nations of the world still accept autocratic or religiously based systems of government.
However, most of the people in the world today seem to favor democratic principles even if they
differ in how those principles should be applied.

The global wave of democratization in the 1990s has, raised democratic principles
to a position of prominence.

The Process Level
The second level of the political culture involves what the public expects of the political process.
If you are English or Nigerian, what do you think about the institutions of your political system
and what is expected of you as a citizen?
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. They are
informed about politics and make demands on the polity, granting their support to political
leaders based on performance. 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

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