Page 88 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Unit 4: Political Culture

Clearly, political culture is not a static phenomenon. Our understanding of political culture must Notes
be dynamic. It must encompass how the agents of political socialization communicate and interpret
historic events and traditional values. It must juxtapose these with the exposure of citizens and
leaders to new experiences and new ideas. We must understand also that the gradual change of
generations means continuing modification of the political culture as new groups of citizens have
different experiences on which to draw.
Self-Assessment

1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Communism still has strong holds in ............... .
(a) China and Cuba (b) Pakistan and India
(c) Russia and Estonia (d) Germany and Peru
(ii) The global wave of democratisation in ............... his raised democratic principles to a
position of prominence.
(a) 1980 (b) 1990
(c) 1985 (d) 2000
(iii) Parochaials are ............... .
(a) illiterates (b) rural people
(c) people who ignore politics (d) all of these
(iv) A small minority of citizens are involved in a ............... .
(a) two-party system (b) one-party system
(c) multi-party system (d) none of these
(v) Authoritarian society can be seen in ............... .
(a) Germany (b) Cuba
(c) Egypt or China (d) none of these.
4.4 Summary

• A political culture “is composed of the attitudes, beliefs, emotions and values of society that
relates to the political system and to apolitical issues.” It is defined as “the pattern of individual
attitudes and orientations towards politics among the members of a political system.”
• It is the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political
process and that provides the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behaviour in
the political system.”
• Political culture may be described as “a short-hand expression to denote the emotional and
attitudinal environment within which the political system operates.”
• Political culture has certain components having their place in the world of sociology. They
are: values, beliefs and emotional attitudes of the people towards their political system.
• It includes certain norms such as that adult population of a country has the right to take part
in the political discussions. The significant cause of the beliefs should also be traced in this
fact that ideas that “donot appear at first glance to have relevance to politics may be intimately
connected with it through the belief system of the political culture.”
• A political culture hinging on the fact of people’s attitudes and beliefs towards the political
system, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, is a product of several inter-related factors—
historical, geographical and socio-economic. A pragmatic orientation, in this direction, is
known by the name of ‘secularisation’ of the political culture.
• France offers a sharp contrast in the chain of historical development. While the revolution of
1789 violently overthrew the existing structures and subsequent events showed the highly
emotional attitudes of the French people, the English leaders expressed their shock at the

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