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There are three theoretical schools within the field of comparative politics: the rational choice theories, the culturalist approaches as well as the structural analyses. This paper addresses the culturalist approach within comparative politics. To begin with the paper offers different definitions of ‘culture’, then shows how change in political culture can be measured and presents two different techniques for measuring values. The theory of political culture has many inquiries: among others it tries to explain electoral turnout, change in political behavior, and economic growth. 2. What is ‘Culture’, can it change, and how to measure it.What is culture? Culture is a system of meaning that people use to manage their daily worlds, large and small. It is the basis of social and political identity that affects how people line up and how they act on a wide range of matters. It is also a framework for organizing the world, for locating the self and others in it, for interpreting the motives of others. (Lichbach/Zuckerman 1997: 42) Inglehart refers to culture as a system of common basic values that help shape the behavior of the people in a given society. (Inglehart 1997: 217) According to Lane a fundamental failure is that Political Science has not come up yet with an operational definition of the internal structure of political culture, respectively of the variables of which it is composed. (Lane 1992:363) [...] All Subject Expand Expand
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Interdisciplinary Studies Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences Regional and Area Studies Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture.[1] DefinitionGabriel Almond defines it as "the particular pattern of orientations toward political actions in which every political system is embedded".[1] Lucian Pye's definition is that "Political culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments, which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system".[1] María Eugenia Vázquez Semadeni defines political culture as "the set of discourses and symbolic practices by means of which both individuals and groups articulate their relationship to power, elaborate their political demands and put them at stake."[2] AnalysisThe limits of a particular political culture are based on subjective identity.[1] The most common form of such identity today is the national identity, and hence nation states set the typical limits of political cultures.[1] The socio-cultural system, in turn, gives meaning to a political culture through shared symbols and rituals (such as a national independence day) which reflect common values.[1] This may develop into a civil religion. The values themselves can be more hierarchical or egalitarian, and will set the limits to political participation, thereby creating a basis for legitimacy.[1] They are transmitted through socialization, and shaped by shared historical experiences which form the collective or national memory.[1] Intellectuals will continue to interpret the political culture through political discourse in the public sphere.[1] Indeed, elite political culture is more consequential than mass-level.[3] ElementsTrust is a major factor in political culture, as its level determines the capacity of the state to function.[3] Postmaterialism is the degree to which a political culture is concerned with issues which are not of immediate physical or material concern, such as human rights and environmentalism.[1] Religion has also an impact on political culture.[3] ClassificationsDifferent typologies of political culture have been proposed. Almond & VerbaGabriel Almond and Sidney Verba in The Civic Culture outlined three pure types of political culture based on level and type of political participation and the nature of people's attitudes toward politics:
Almond and Verba wrote that these types of political culture can combine to create the civic culture, which mixes the best elements of each. ElazarDaniel J. Elazar identified three kinds of political culture:[3]
HuntingtonSamuel P. Huntington classified political cultures according to civilizations on the basis of geography and history:[3]
InglehartRonald Inglehart proposes that political culture can dictate political systems, and points out a correlation between Protestantism (or more generally societies with high Secular-Rational values and high Self Expression values on the Inglehart-Weltzel values map) and stable democratization.[4] However, the recurrent post-elections clashes in largely protestant Sub-Saharan countries, such as Kenya or Uganda, shows that religious affiliations seem to poorly affect the political behaviour of populations. National political culturesRussiaRussia is a low-trust society, with even the highest trusted institutions of church and the military having more distrustful than trusting citizens, and with low participation in civil society.[3][5] This means that Russia has a weak civic political culture. Furthermore, the authoritarian traditions of Russia mean that there is little support for democratic norms such as tolerance of dissent and pluralism.[6] Russia has a history of authoritarian rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin, who have engaged in massive repression of all potential political competitors, from the oprichnina to the Great Purge. The resulting political systems of Tsarist autocracy and Soviet communism had no space for independent institutions. United StatesThe political culture of the United States was heavily influenced by the background of its early immigrants, as it is a settler society. Samuel P. Huntington identified American politics as having a "Tudor" character, with elements of English political culture of that period, such as common law, strong courts, local self-rule, decentralized sovereignty across institutions, and reliance on popular militias instead of a standing army, having been imported by early settlers.[7] Another source of political culture was the arrival of Scotch-Irish Americans, who came from a violent region of Britain, and brought with them a strong sense of individualism and support for the right to bear arms.[8] These settlers provided the support for Jacksonian democracy, which was a revolution of its time against the established elites, and remnants of which can still be seen in modern American populism.[8] ChinaThe political culture of China is tied closely to political socialization, as children are indoctrinated into the collectivist perspective of the Chinese Communist Party. This inculcation is theorized to explain the delayed growth of secularism in Chinese culture, especially during the Cultural Revolution.[9] Chinese political culture perceives the relationship between government and individuals to be a hierarchy. Because of this, there is little pushback from individuals during policy and regulation change. The political culture also shows a trend against confrontationality, which decreases the quantity and frequency of social conflict.[10] Both of these qualities stem from traditional Chinese values imbedded during the age of Confucianism. When the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1948, Mao Zedong unsuccessfully attempted to remove these traits from the culture, instead opting for revolutionary values and priorities.[11] IndiaDue to India's colonization by the British Empire, the contemporary political culture has been influenced by western ideas that were not present before. These influences include democracy and parliamentary systems, two institutions that stood ideologically opposite of the caste system that dictated society before.[12] Because of India's multicultural demography, the political culture varies by group and region. India's successful democratization lead to power being given to both the urbanized and well educated class who focused on national appeal, as well as more traditional, rural, and lower class political actors.[13] In the modern era, the class system of India has begun to break down, and members of lower classes are now entering higher political and economic positions. This is especially true for lower class women, who historically have been excluded from such activities.[14] See also
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