Introduction
When people live in a society, they are imparted with specific values and norms which shape their understanding of different things. One of the unique understanding that people develop is their notion of how they expect the government to work. They also develop unique belief on what they expect the political system to do for them (Roskin, et al. 106). These beliefs towards the government or the political system that individuals of a given society develop are what are referred to as the political culture of a nation. The political culture varies from one nation to another. There are various factors which determine the political culture of a nation. These factors include economy, history, folkway, and religion. A political culture which was laid down centuries ago can endure within a society for a very long time. For example, we can compare the Great Britain and America. The two countries are both democracies. However, America believes in a government which derives its powers from a written constitution. The American people also fear monarchy and a centralized form of government. British, on the other hand, has been ruled by monarchies for centuries. On the contrary, they are never used to a written constitution (Pye and Verba 78).
Even with a state like the United States, Political culture varies from place to place. For example, the southern politicians, for a long time, we believed to be humble and polite; while the northern politicians were believed to be more aggressive and rude. This is why J. F. Kennedy one day said that Washington D.C has an efficient southern city and a charming northern city (Pye and Verba 83). This, therefore, means that political culture is developed by a people who believe in a common political ideology. Political culture forms a system of empirical beliefs, symbols, expression, and values. Political culture defines a situation in which political actions take place.
Political Culture and Citizenship
The idea of citizenship is also incorporated in the issue of political culture. This is because political culture also focuses on ideas which make an individual a good citizen. A citizen is an individual who has a legal right to be a member of a given political community. Every citizen of a political community has got some rights and obligations for their country. There is no standard definition of the word “citizen” because every country has got its rule regarding becoming a citizen of a given country (Klingemann 28). For example, in France, anyone who is born in the country automatically becomes a citizen of the country. On the other hand, in Germany, for one to become a citizen, their parents have to be citizens of Germany (Klingemann, 31).
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, was the first person to describe what makes an individual become a citizen of a country. He believed that just living in a country does not guarantee an individual to be a citizen. A citizen must share in the power and office of the regime . This, therefore, means that a tyranny has got one citizen while a democracy has will always have many citizens. For someone to be a good citizen they should live up to the ideologies of the regime. In America, a person with a virtuous character but does not work towards the total good of the country is said to be a good person but a bad citizen. Americans believe that a good citizen should be able to help others and to help in building and protecting the country.
Political Culture and Public Opinion
The term political culture and public opinion sometimes overlap thereby making it quite tricky to distinguish between the two. The political culture looks at the general values of a government. On the other hand, public opinion focuses on the public view towards specific leader of a given policy. Political culture focuses on the attitude that sustains a given political system. Public opinion seeks the public’s response towards the current questions. The question may include the credibility of the leader or the viability of a given legislative amendment. In some cases, the political culture and the political opinion overlap (Roskin, et al. 108). This means that what is a political culture can be a political opinion at the same time. However, the questions which are used to establish responses on political culture vary from those used in political opinion. For example, a political culture question may as how much an individual has faith in the presidency. On the other hand, a political opinion question will be like, “do you believe the president is doing a good job. For a political culture to be established, the same question can be asked in different countries. The responses can be traced over time to establish a general view of the society towards the presidency.
There has been a general belief that public opinion changes quickly while public culture does not change; this is not true. A country which has been enjoying a relatively stable environment with good economic growth and efficient government will always stick to a given political culture. However, when things change; when the economy starts to collapse and political instability crops in, the political culture will always change. When a given public opinion is held for a long period of time it changes from a public opinion to a political culture. In other words, when a public opinion survives the test of time, it graduates to a political culture. For example, around the 1960s, the public opinion of the Vietnamese was against the war. This opinion stayed for long enough until it is now one of the current political cultures of Vietnam (Roskin, et al. 110). Public opinion changes over a short period of culture while the political culture can stay for centuries. A good example is a state in Russia. Russia has never enjoyed democracy ever since. As a result, they have a political culture of supporting strong leaders. On the other hand, the current public opinion is that they want democracy. This therefore means that a contrasting public opinion and political culture can exist in a given society at a given time.
The Political Culture of the United States of America
The political culture of the American people is founded on a number values and core ideals. These ideals include equality, liberty, democracy, unity, individualism, and diversity. The political debate in America focuses mainly on how to make these ideals even better. They have passed a stage where they were they were lobbying to have such ideals. For example, Americans believe that they have the freedom to do whatever they want. This is what is referred to as liberty (Lichterman & Cefaï 152). It is obvious that for an individual to enjoy happiness and personal fulfillment, they must have liberty. However, liberty can never be absolute. There have to be some restrictions lest the society may run out of control. Generally, we have all the freedom to do whatever we want so long us we do not exercise our freedom I a way that infringes other people’s freedom.
The United States is defined as a limited government because it imposes very few restrictions on the on the operations of the citizens. A limited government, like the United States, cannot limit people’s freedom to speech, freedom of religion, freedom assembly, among others. A limited government will always have a constitution which guides the limits of the government as well as those of the citizens. Liberty should also extend to economic levels. People should have the freedom to do whatever they see fit so long as it will improve their economic status. For a long time, America has been operating in a laissez-faire capitalism (Almond, Abraham, & Verba 66). This is where the government pays almost no role in the production, distribution and regulation of goods and services. However, currently, the public opinion has it that the government should involve themselves more in the economic activities.
Another important aspect of American’s political culture is the equality. Even though two people can never be truly equal, they should be considered equal before the law. Sone Americans may be poorer than others; some may be from different races or religion, but they all have equal fundamental rights. Equality means that people are not judged by the color of their skin, or their economic status but by the value of their character. Political equality refers to a situation where everybody is treated equally in the political sphere. This implies that everybody is equal before the law. Everybody has the right to vote, the right to political seat and the right to have a political view.
A democratic society is analogous to the theory of the sleeping dog. Most of the leaders in democratic governments believe that the citizens pay very little attention to what happens in the political arena. They are also aware that issues such as scandals, inflation, unemployment, and unpopular wars can arouse the sleeping dogs who will respond by voting them out. The major aim of leaders in many democracies is to try and keep the public silent. They follow the rule of anticipated silence by asking themselves how the public will react to their actions and decisions. They will do anything to let the sleeping dog lie, that is, ensuring that the public is always quite. This is the reason why America is one of the democratic industrialized countries with the lowest voter turnout. For a long time, the voter turnout in America has been around 50%. However, the situation is improving currently as many people cast now cast their votes. In European countries, the voter turnout has been above 80% for several years now (Lichterman & Cefaï 152).
The decay of political culture
The political cultures of developed countries have become more cynical over some unlikely changes in the political system. Due to these changes, the voter turnout has dropped out drastically. Nowadays, several people see politicians as corrupt people who are responsible for the inefficiencies in the governmental institutions. For example, there was the steepest drop in the Japan’s economy were the economy was stagnant for more than two decades. In 196s and 1970s when the U. S government was fighting the Vietnam war, the trust on the government dropped drastically. When Ronald Reagan took power, the trust started to be regained. This was because of the “feel good” policy of Reagan. The trust again fell in 2004 when the U. S, under the rule of George W. Bush started fighting Iraq. Recently, there was a fall in trust when the federal government’s debts started to grow in 2010. When the citizens grow in cynicism, they become very hard to govern. Currently, the political culture of the United Stated is not very favorable of late. The citizens have become very cynical and they question every move by the government.
Currently America seems to be divided in the political lines. The two antagonistic parties, Democrats, and republicans have been voting against each other for decades now. Republicans believe in the conservatory nature of the United States. They believe that the United States being the super power should always be stepping on other countries. They believe in the superiority of America, and America should always retaliate with full force if any country tries to intimidate her. In other words, political culture of the Republicans is that war against the enemy is the best solution. On the other hand, The Democrats believe that there are better ways of solving international conflicts than using the lethal force. They believe that signing of treaties will be the best way to reduce the many enemies America currently has. This therefore shows a situation where we have one country with two conflicting political cultures. A split that Richard Nixon managed in 1968 is now growing stronger and deeper.
There is a school of thought which beliefs that the split in political culture is not necessarily a bad thing in other words, the defiance by the citizens can be a good thing to take advantage of. It is true that politicians all over the world have been promising citizens heaven and earth that they actually cannot deliver. The truth is that there is never enough money to deliver such promises. Citizens, on the other hand have become more and more intelligent. They will always know when a politician is promising what they cannot deliver. As a result, they will keep on criticizing the government. Countries like Egypt, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, among others have experienced massive protest against corruption and dictatorship. For example, in Egypt, the public felt that president Hosni Mubarak who had been in power for thirty years should give a chance for others to become president and also enable the Egyptians to exercise their democratic rights. As a result, they organized an Arab spring which ensured that Mubarak was ousted out of the office. This, therefore, shows that citizen defiance can also be a good thing.
Elites and Mass Subcultures
The political culture of a country can never be uniform. People of different classes and ideologies will always form different political culture. For example, the political culture of the elites is quite different from that of the remaining masses. The elite, in this case, can be referred to as the group of people who have more political influence, better education, or higher economic standards. The perspective of the elites will always be different from that of the mass. The elites participate more actively in politics than the remaining mass they can always fight for justice, they always vote and some of them even vie for political positions. This therefore means that the more educated people are the more they develop interest towards politics. And in so doing, they start to participate in political activities.
Minority Subculture
More than a third of the United States population is non-white. Even the whites, there are still divided in terms of ethnic groups, religion, among others. These groups that do not form the mainstream of the population are referred to as the minority groups. The minority groups include the African Americans, the Latino Americans, the Pacific Islanders, among others. A good example of the minority group is the African Americans. They are the poorest, with least education and are more liberal and democratic when it comes to voting. In 2012 when Obama was competing Romney, there was an evidence of political split. Non-white Americans voted Obama while the white Americans voted Romney. When a black teenager was shot in Florida in 2012, the African Americans believed that it was an indication of racism. The African Americans also termed the murder trial of O.J Simpson as a show of racism. The blacks believe that they are still being oppressed and discriminated than ever before. On the other hand, the whites believe that there has been a significant improvement of the African American status in the U. S.
In many countries with a minority group, there has been a problem that the subcultures do not like to be ruled by the dominant groups. For Example, In France, the French speakers in Quebec do not want to be ruled by the Canadians. They are fighting on ways to pull over and form their own independent country. Where the minority group is quite distinct, the country can be threatened. A good example is the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Initially, it was one country. But with time, the Yugoslavia started to pledge more loyalty to their tribe elders than the government; as a result, Yugoslavia split out of the Soviet Union.
Political Socialization
Political socialization is the learning by the citizens to uphold political values and maintain allegiance to their country. For example, activities such as obeying the national anthem and the national flag are things which are learnt as a person grows within a country. Children who are raised in ghettos will always pick up different cultures from those who are raised in the mainstream society (Roskin, et al. 116). This, therefore, means that there will be variable political cultures within a country emanating from the fact that some people were raised in different environments. The kind of life that a child encounters at the tender stages of their life will define the kind of people they will grow to become. The other factor that affects the behavior and political perception of a child include the families they grew up in; the schools they went to; the peers and age mates they associate with; the ruling government; and the media.
Works Sited
Pye, Lucian W., and Sidney Verba. Political culture and political development. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter, Dieter Fuchs, and Jan Zielonka, eds. Democracy and political culture in Eastern Europe. Routledge, 2006.
Roskin, Michael, Robert Cord, James Medeiros, and Walter Jones. "Political Science-An Introduction." Routledge, 2015.
Almond, Gabriel Abraham, and Sidney Verba. The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Lichterman, Paul, and Daniel Cefaï. "The idea of political culture." Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis 2006: 392-414.
