citizens that in turn shapes their political behavior in society. In other words, a political culture determines how people feel about their political system and whether they support it. Not surprisingly, governments take a keen interest in attempting to shape political culture.
This chapter discusses the importance of political culture and how it shapes society. The concepts of civic culture and political socialization are important points to political culture as well as moving from materialism to postmaterialsm. Read on to find out more on these topics.
Analyzing Political Culture
In his work The Republic (see Chapter 14), Plato discusses the importance of political culture and political socialization for a political regime. The political culture of a society shapes political values and political behavior and has to be in line with the political system. If it isn’t, the long-term survival of the regime is in question. For this reason, according to Plato, the young in a society have to be politically socialized, which is a fancy term for being politically indoctrinated, with the values of the regime. Only political socialization can guarantee survival of the regime in the long run. (See the later section “Working on Political Socialization” for more on political socialization.)
The importance of political culture
Every society instills certain political values into its people. Political values are defined as deeply held views about how government is supposed to work and what a person’s role in a political system is. These beliefs and values are what shapes the political culture of a nation. The political culture of a country is thus determined by the history of a people and its religious, economic, and social values. If a government is able to manipulate a political culture, it can enhance support by the people. Therefore, interfering in the shaping of a political culture has become commonplace in the world.
Both democracies and authoritarian governments attempt to influence the political culture in a country. In totalitarian societies, such as the Soviet Union, classes designed to indoctrinate the population are mandatory at all school levels. In the U.S., civic education classes, designed to accomplish similar objectives, are also required in most states.
Touching on political socialization
Many governments of all types use the process of political socialization to intervene in the creation of a good citizen. Governments can do so through the educational process, control of the media, a state religion, public events such as military parades, and commemoration of past events.
Noting citizenship
The concept of citizenship is a part of political culture. In every society, people are told what makes a good citizen and what type of characteristics citizens should possess.
Jus soli (Latin for “right by territory”): In a country following the law of jus soli, everybody born in its territory automatically becomes a citizen. France and the United States use this law.
Jus sanguinis (Latin for “right by blood”): Countries following jus sanguinis bestow citizenship rights based on blood. For example, a person is automatically a German citizen if one of his parents was a German citizen, regardless of whether he ever visited or lived in Germany. (As a side note, Germany will allow individuals to become citizens if they have legally lived in Germany for eight years and apply for citizenship.)
Israel’s law of return: It makes every Jewish person a citizen as soon as he moves permanently to Israel. This can be called citizenship by religion.
Looking at the variances of political cultures
Some nation-states have more than one culture. These states, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, are made up of different groups, with different religious traditions, and they don’t even share a common language. Instead, they share loyalty with their tribe and consider it, and not the national government, the ultimate source of power. They don’t share a culture or history with the majority group. This usually results in political struggle for power and often civil war and the possible breakup of a nation-state.
Changing political cultures
Political cultures do change over time. However, changes come slowly because people are set in their ways and refuse to change their attitudes and behavior.
Political cultures aren’t static and can change over time. The easiest way for a political culture to change is to face a major crisis. Economic crises have changed cultural attitudes toward governments. For example, the Great Depression beginning in 1929 led to a support of government intervention in the economy in the form of a welfare state. At the same time, the economic crisis of 2007/2008 resulted in many Americans losing trust in their government and becoming more cynical in nature.
In other societies, the same can happen. In Japan, for example, decades of no or low economic growth have changed a culture that was very supportive and proud of its form of government. The average Japanese today is more cynical and less likely to be proud of government. Political scandals and wars can have similar effects. Watergate, for example, made American culture more negative toward government, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 had a similar effect.
Sustaining Democracy: The Civic Culture
The seminal work on political culture was published in 1963 by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba. Titled The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (SAGE Publications, Inc.), the work was in response to the collapse of democracy in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s and in Africa in the 1950s. In both instances, democracies were established in former authoritarian countries (colonies in Africa) but survived for only a few years. (See Chapter 16 for more information on failures of democracy.)
Almond and Verba believed that political cultures