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Unit 4: Political Culture

• The second level of the political culture involves what the public expects of the political Notes
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?
• 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.
• Parochials are hardly aware of government and politics. They may be illiterates, rural people
living in remote areas, or simply people who ignore politics and its impact on their lives.
• The democratic preindustrial system, perhaps one like India, which has a pre-dominantly
rural, illiterate population. In such a country there are few political participants, chiefly
educated professionals, business people, and landowners.
• The opposite of trust is hostility, which can destroy intergroup and interpersonal relations.
The tragic examples of ethnic, religious, and ideological conflict in many nations—such as
the conflicts in Rwanda, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Chechnya-show how easily hostility
can be converted into violence and aggressive action.
• The politics of a country are also influenced by public images of what constitutes the good
society and how to achieve it. At one level, the political culture includes expectations of the
government’s overall involvement in society and the economy. Should government manage
the economy, or should private property rights and market forces guide economic activity?
• The range in opinions is considerable, from around three-quarters believing this is a
government responsibility in Israel and Nigeria, to only a quarter of the French.
• Policy expectations also involve specific policy demands. Some policy goals, such as material
welfare, are valued by nearly everyone. Concern about other policy goals may vary widely
across nations because of the nation’s circumstances and because of cultural traditions.
• Some cultures put more weight on the policy outputs of government, such as providing
welfare and security. Other cultures also emphasize how the process functions, which involves
values such as the rule of law and procedural justice. Among Germans, for example, the rule
of law is given great importance; in many developing nations political relations are personally
based, and there is less willingness to rely on legalistic frameworks.
• Political satisfaction is lower in the second group of nations that have recently developed
strong democratic structures— several Latin American and East European nations fall into
this category.
• In a consensual political culture, citizens tend to agree on the appropriate means of making
political decisions and to agree on the major problems facing the society and how to solve
them.
• When a country is deeply divided in political attitudes and these differences persist over
time, distinctive political subcultures may develop. The citizens in these subcultures may
have sharply different points of view on at least some critical political matters, such as the
boundaries of the nation, the nature of the regime, or the correct ideology.
• The major social trends of our time— modernity and secularism, postmaterial values,
fundamentalism and ethnic awareness, democratization, and marketization—reflect both
general societal developments and specific historic events.
• Exposure to modernity through work, education, and the media shapes an individual’s
personal experiences and sends messages about modernity in other societies. It encourages
citizen participation, a sense of individual equality, the desire for improved living standards
and increased life expectancy, and government legitimacy based on policy performance.
• A by-product of socioeconomic modernization appears in the nations of North America, Western
Europe, and Japan that have developed the characteristics of a postindustrial society. Younger
generations who grew up under conditions of economic prosperity and international peace are
now less concerned with material well-being and personal security than their parents.

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