Political Culture

Although it was known for ages that the cultures, of various peoples and countries were and are different from each other, yet the idea of political culture is a recent one. In fact, it has been derived from the researches of the political scientists in the field of political systems analysis.

Definitions of political culture are many and varied. Roy Macridis says that it is “the commonly shared goals and the commonly accepted rules” regarding government and politics. Sidney Verba says: political culture is “the system of empirical beliefs, expressive symbols and values, which defines the situation in which political action takes place.” Their definition makes it clear that “political culture” is not an a priori concept, but is about the day-to-day behaviour of the rulers and the ruled.

Samuel Beer says that political culture consists of political values, beliefs and emotional attitudes about how government ought to be conducted and about what it should be. These values and beliefs, with greater or lesser modification, are passed on by instruction or imitation from one generation to the next. Thus Beer emphasizes continuity in political culture. It means that the political culture of a country is part of its general culture. It springs from the conceptions of authority and the conceptions of purpose for which authority is exercised in a country.

One difficulty of defining political culture is that it is a result of two opposite and sometimes contradictory trends, namely the political beliefs and attitudes of the individual and the political values and attitudes of the people and society in which he or she lives. Individual’s attitudes and values are the result of political socialisation through which he or she has gone from childhood to adult age, which orientate him or her towards the political system. Political orientation of the individual can be due to three factors: individual perceptions of the political system and of its political personalities and structures; his or . her feelings towards them; and the conclusions and opinions a person draws about them.

These perceptions, attitudes and opinions produce effects on the political system. This is called his or her political efficacy. It means that the citizen can influence positively or negatively the decisions and policies of the rulers by his efforts, such as by his or her vote. This belief is the basis of democratic political culture. On the contrary, a person may believe that his political system is one of bribery, favouritism, nepotism and influence peddling. In this case, its political culture excites feelings of distrust, apathy, and a low degree of commitment to the political system.

Moreover, in a country, there may be groups whose belief^ and values are different from the majority group. Such groups have a sub-culture. The political culture must, however, be acceptable to the bulk of the people in die country, if its political system is to achieve some degree of stability and security. In other words, it must have legitimacy, if it is to be a viable political system. This is the role of political culture in the political system. Every political system is embedded in its political culture.

In some cases, however, it may so happen that a political system “may change, but its political culture many not change correspondingly, or the political culture may change, but its political system may not In such situations, the stability and continuity of the political system may be threatened. Such situations are the results of political alienation or anomie, apathy or disbelief in the old rules and norms of political culture or may be due to new forces of change, generated among some individuals or groups in die community, which may challenge loyalty, allegiance and trust in the decision-making authority of the political system.

In more concrete terms, this dichotomy is due to the failure of the conversion processes or of the feedback to change die demands of the people into laws and policies by the decision-makers. It means that the “culture” of the decision-makers has become different from the “culture” or beliefs, attitudes, expectations and wishes of the people. We may define the political culture as those ideas, values, attitudes or orientations about a political system which are acceptable to and shared by the majority of the people in the State.

 

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