Nature and

Components of
Political Culture
POLITICAL CULTURE (varying definitions and descriptions)
●​ Refers to the distinguishing beliefs, attitudes, habits and behavior
patterns that characterize a political community
●​ historically-shared, widely-held beliefs, feelings and values about
the nature of political systems which can serve as a LINK between
the citizens and the government.
●​ pattern of shared values, moral norms, beliefs expectations, and
attitudes that relate to politics and its social context. (Sodaro, 2008)
●​ The composite of basic values, feelings, and knowledge that
underlie the political process. Hence, the building blocks of
political culture are the beliefs, opinions, and emotions of the
citizens toward their form of government. (Pye, 1965)
●​ It can be thought of as a nation’s political personality which
includes the deep-rooted, well-established political traits that are
characteristic of a society. Political culture takes into account the
attitudes, values, and beliefs that people in a society have about
 the political system, including standard assumptions about the way
that government works.
●​ “They are rather like the lenses in a pair of glasses: they are not
the things we see when we look at the world; they are the things
we see with.” Lance Bennett, Public Opinion in American Politics
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), 368.

●​ Political culture includes formal rules as well as customs and

traditions, sometimes referred to as “habits of the heart,” that are
passed on generationally. People agree to abide by certain formal
rules, such as the country’s constitution and codified laws. They
also live by unstated rules: for example, the willingness in the
United States to accept the outcomes of elections without
resorting to violence {(pre-Trump era) inspiring the Bolzonaro
supporters' protests in Brazil} . Political culture sets the
boundaries of acceptable political behavior in a society. Daniel J.
Elazar, The American Mosaic (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994).
●​ set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and
meaning to a political process and that provides the underlying
assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system
●​ over-all distribution of citizens’ orientations to political objects
(components of political culture)
1.​ Orientations of problem-solving: are they pragmatic or
rationalistic?
2.​ Orientations to collective action: are they cooperative or
non-cooperative?
3.​ Orientations to the political system: are they allegiant or
alienated?
4.​ Orientations to other people: are they trustful or
mistrustful?

●​ In the pioneering research of Almond and Verba (1963), political

culture is made up of the COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE,
 EVALUATIVE orientations of the people toward the political
system.

Hence, Sodaro (2008) articulated these views:

​ Political culture reflects the ways people think and feel about political
life. It consists of clusters of attitudes about authority, government, and
society that are accepted by large portions of a country’s population, quite
often, the majority. It includes broadly diffused core values especially those
that relate to political ideals and political relations. In some cases, the
ideas of liberal and social democracy-- such as individual freedom,
equality, tolerance, and social welfare—are the main sources of political
values. (p. 294).

Components of Political Culture (Political Objects)

●​ INSTITUTIONS—three branches of the government (executive,
legislative, judiciary)
●​ PROCESSES – elections, party-system, etc…
●​ POLITICAL BELIEFS – adherence to democracy, pluralism,
adherence to rule of laws
●​ POLITICAL ATTITUDES – collectivism (Asian) individualism
(Western) ; political “apathy”
●​ POLITICAL VIRTUES/VALUES – those essentially positive traits
or broadly diffused core values especially those that relate to
political ideals like liberal & social democracy (creating the
values of equality, individual freedom, tolerance, etc..) of both the
citizenry and the ruler
●​ POLITICAL PRACTICES – those which were born out of the
peoples’ participation/dealings with the institutions, processes,
orientations etc…
○​ Maybe good or bad practices : nepotism, regionalism
○​ Bureaucratic practices
●​ RITUALS AND SYMBOLS
 ○​ such as singing the national anthem at sporting events
and saluting the flag before the start of a school day, are
ceremonial acts that are performed by the people of a
nation.
○​ Election Night follows a standard script that ends with the
vanquished candidate congratulating the opponent on a
well-fought battle and urging support and unity behind the
victor. Whether they have supported a winning or losing
candidate, voters feel better about the outcome as a
result of this ritual

References:

Almond, G., and Verba, S. (1963). The civic culture: political attitudes and democracy in
five nations. NJ: Princeton University Press.

Pye, L. and Verba, S. (1965). Political culture and political development. New Jersey:
Princeton University Press.

Sodaro, M. (2008). Comparative politics a global introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill

Companies, Inc.

012books.lardbucket.org/books/21st-century-american-government-and-politics/s10-01-
political-culture.html
 Political Culture
•It is a set of values beliefs, emotions and view points
of the people about their political system of a state.

•A pattern of shared values, moral norms, beliefs

expectations, and attitudes that relate to politics and
its social context. (Sodaro, 2008)

•The composite of basic values, feelings, and

knowledge that underlie the political process. Hence,
the building blocks of political culture are the beliefs,
opinions, and emotions of the citizens toward their
form of government. (Lucian Pye, 1965)
 Characteristics of Political
Culture
◼ Political culture is a universal concept.
◼ It is a comprehensive concept.
◼ Every political system has distinctive culture.
◼ Political culture is a part of General Culture.
◼ Political culture influences Political systems.
◼ Political culture influences political system.
◼ The concept of political culture is
subjective in nature.
◼ Political culture is a dynamic concept.
◼ Political culture has its own sub cultures.
Subcultures
Within national political cultures, there
are subcultures, characterizing political attitudes
of different groups within society. In conflictual
cultures, there are deep rifts between
subcultures.
The rifts are caused by such factors as:
Class
Ethnicity or race
Religion
Regional differences
Orientations of political culture

◼ Cognitive Orientation:- It is implied by the

amount and the type of the knowledge which the people
posses about political problems and events
◼ Affective Orientation:- It implies the amount
of devotion and interest of the people toward their
political system
◼ Evaluative orientation:- While evaluating
their political system people try to know if the political
system has achieved the objective which it had sought
to achieve.
 Components of Pol. Culture
◼ Political virtues/values
those essentially positive traits or broadly
diffused core values especially those that
relate to political ideals like liberal & social
democracy (creating the values of equality,
individual freedom, tolerance, etc..) of both
the citizenry and the rulers.

◼ Delicadeza
◼ Public service
◼ Collective equality
▪Political Beliefs – adherence to democracy,
pluralism, adherence to rule of laws

▪Political Attitudes :
collectivism (Asian)
individualism (Western) ; political “apathy”

▪Standard assumptions how the government

works

▪Political Institutions—three branches of the

government (executive, legislative, judiciary)

PROCESSES – elections, party-system, etc…

Determinants of Political Culture
◼ Historical factors
◼ Geographical factors
◼ Social factors
◼ Economic factors
◼ Spread of education
◼ Radio and Television
◼ Newspapers and Televisions
◼ Political parties
◼ Ideological basis of political system
 A Morphological Illustration of
Political Culture
Almond’ s and Verba’s Analysis
Civic Culture

Unmixed political culture Mixed political culture

Parochial Subject Participant

political culture political culture political culture

Parochial subject Subject Participant Parochial Participant

political culture political culture Political culture
Secularisation of political culture

With the passage of time, the political

culture, also changes and if as a result of this
change people become more rational, logical,
wiser, analytical and empirical in their political
attitudes, to this we can call the secularisation of
political culture.
Factors helpful in the growth of
secular political culture.
◼ Education
◼ Radio and Television
◼ Secular Press
◼ Type of Political System
◼ Secular State
◼ Social and Economic equality
◼ Scientific and Technical progress
◼ Political Parties
◼ Pressure Groups
◼ Industrialisation and Urbanisation
Relevance of Political Culture in
Politics
◼ It has made political Science as a real Social Science.
◼ The study of political science has become practical
◼ Increase in the scope of political Science.
◼ Measuring rod to judge the success and failure of
political system.
◼ Political science has become a dynamic Subject
◼ Helpful in knowing the diversities in human nature.
◼ Combination of micro and macro study.
◼ Helpful to know the reason of political decay.
◼ Helpful in bringing progressive political change.
◼ Basis of making distinction among political systems.
 Criticism of the concept of
political culture
◼ Not a correct barometer to know the behavior of
man.
◼ Difficult to draw a line between general culture
and political culture.
◼ It is not a new concept.
 Conclusion

The study of this concept helps us to

understand the political beliefs and attitudes of
the people living under various political systems.
The concept of political system is an attempt to
gain the rigour and comprehensiveness which
these other concepts lack.
 References
◼ Almond, G., and Verba, S. (1963). The civic culture: political attitudes and democracy
in five nations. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Downloaded from:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/137951239/ALMOND-VERBA-the-Civic-Culture-Political-
Attitudes-and-Democracy-in-Five-Nations

▪ Pye, L. and Verba, S. (1965). Political culture and political development. New
Jersey: Princeton University Press

▪ Sodaro, M. (2008). Comparative politics a global introduction. New York: McGraw-

Hill Companies, Inc.
Types of Political
Culture
TYPES OF POLITICAL CULTURE

Theoretical Considerations : Structural functionalist theory

(Source:
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/tpavone/files/almond_verba-_the_civic_c
ulture_critical_review_0.pdf)

The political sociology of Almond and Verba (1963) is strongly influenced

by sociological structural functionalism. Structural functionalism emerged in
the late 19th and early 20th century in the context of intense social change
and the emergence of destabilizing mass political movements spurred by
industrialization and political enfranchisement. It was the potential
disintegration of society at the hands of rapid change that motivated early
structural functionalists, particularly Emile Durkheim, to study how societies
can maintain social unity.
At the core of structural functionalism lies the concept of social function – a
term initially developed in Durkheim’s The Division of Labor in Society. To
ask what a function is, posits Durkheim, requires one to “investigate the
need to which it corresponds” (1997 [1893]: 11).
Specifically, for Durkheim a formal or informal institution’s function is “the
correspondence between it and the needs of the social organism”
(Radcliffe-Brown 1935: 394). Thus in his analysis of the division of labor,
Durkheim concludes that “the economic services it renders are trivial by
comparison with the moral effect it produces. Its true function, the real need
to which it corresponds, is that feeling of solidarity in two or more persons
which it creates” (Jones 1986).
In general, structural functionalists posit that if structures and institutions
are to survive, they must promote social solidarity, or, once solidarity is
achieved, homeostasis (system stability). As Radcliffe-Brown argued, “[t]he
function of any recurrent activity, such as the punishment of a crime, or a
funeral ceremony, is the part it plays in the social life as a whole and
therefore the contribution it makes to the maintenance of structural
continuity” (1935: 396). An examination of Almond and Verba’s The Civic
Culture reveals remarkable continuity with the foregoing scholarly tradition.

Almond and Verba (1963)’s Structural Functionalist Theory of Political

Culture

Where Durkheim perceived a threat to social unity in the industrial

revolution, Almond and Verba perceive a similar threat in the regime
changes of the second wave of democratization and the military threats of
the Cold War: “How can these subtleties and these humane etiquettes [of
stable democracies] survive even among ourselves in a world caught in the
grip of a science and technology run wild, destructive of tradition and of
community and possibly of life itself?” (pg. 7). The Civic Culture represents
their search for a plausible answer.

Building Blocks – Orientation and Political Objects

The building blocks of Almond and Verba’s structural functionalist theory

are a set of
(1) individual orientations linked to
(2) political objects
 ■​ Orientation can take three forms:

(1) cognitive orientation (“knowledge of and belief about the political

system, its roles and the incumbents of these roles, its inputs, and its
outputs”)
(2) affective orientation (“feelings about the political system, its roles,
personnel, and performance”), and;
(3) evaluative orientation (“judgments and opinions about political objects
that typically involve the combination of value standards and criteria with
information and feelings”)

●​ Political objects include:

(1) the “general” political system,

(2) the specific roles or structures in the system (such as legislatures and
bureaucracies),
(3) the incumbents of roles (such as monarchs and legislators), and;
(4) public policies (decisions or enforcements of decisions).

FACTORS/DETERMINANTS OF POLITICAL CULTURE

1.​ AWARENESS of government
2.​ EXPECTATIONS of government
3.​ Political PARTICIPATION

THREE TYPES OF POLITICAL CULTURES

(Source:Almond, Gabriel & Verba, Sydney. The Civic Culture : Political Attitudes and
Democracy in five nations. A 1963 cross-national study on five democratic countries (
USA, UK, Mexico, Italy, Germany)
1.​ PAROCHIAL CULTURE ( low awareness, expectations, and
participation) Mexico in the study, Africa also as applied later on
●​ Citizens have no cognitive orientations toward the political system
●​ marked by the absence of a sense of citizenship, with people
identifying with their locality rather than the nation, and having
neither the desire nor the ability to participate in politics
●​ Societies with this type of political culture do not expect anything
positive of government
●​ People do not expect to participate in politics because they believe
that it is an elite domain
●​ In these simpler traditional societies, there are no specialized
political roles and little expectation for political change (pgs. 17; 20).
Here, “the individual thinks of his family’s advantage as the only
goal to pursue, or conceives of his role in the political system in
familistic terms” (pg. 120).
●​ Government is seen as the enforcer of its own rules, hence, the
realm of politics is perceived to be avoided whenever possible

2.​ SUBJECT CULTURE (higher levels of awareness & expectations

but low participation) examples: Italy & Germany
●​ Citizens have cognitive orientations only toward the OUTPUT
aspect of the system
●​ Citizens expect positive reaction from the government but do not
tend to be politically active
●​ Also see politics as an elite domain, to be engaged in by those
with power and influence
●​ characterized by more passivity amongst citizens, and recognition
that they have only a very limited capacity to influence
government; either feel pride or cultivate hostility towards their
political system – they either accept the decisions of their rulers as
legitimate, or struggle against them in the name of their right to
self-determination
●​ Thus orientation towards the system and its outputs is channeled
via a relatively detached, passive relationship on the part of the
citizen (pg. 17). Subject cultures are most compatible with
centralized, authoritarian political structures (pgs. 17; 20).
●​ Indeed, for the subject “the law is something he obeys, not
something he helps shape” (pg. 118).

3.​ PARTICIPATORY/PARTICIPANT CULTURE (high levels of all

three) USA & UK
●​ Citizens have cognitive orientations both on the INPUT &
OUTPUT aspects of the pol. System
●​ there is high cognitive, affective, and evaluative orientation
towards the political system and policy outputs, but orientations
towards input objects (like political parties) and the self as an
active participants are minimal
●​ Societies with this type of pol. culture tend to have citizens with
high expectations of the government and of personally
participating in politics, if at no other time, than mere voting in
elections.
●​ the citizens believe both that they can contribute to the system and
that they are affected by it
●​ citizens pay close attention to politics and regard popular
participation as both desirable and effective; people take active
part in the political sphere by considering themselves as active
members of the polity
●​ This type of culture is central to the principles of any democratic
society
●​ Members of society have high cognitive, affective, and evaluative
orientation to the political system, the input objects, the policy
outputs, and recognize the self as an active participant in the
polity. Social actors tend to be activist and mobilized
●​ In general, participant cultures are most compatible with
democratic political structures (pg. 20). Here, the citizen is
expected to have “the virtues of the subject – to obey the law, to
 be loyal – but he is also expected to take some part in the
formation of decisions” (pg. 118).

TAKEAWAYS:
In parochial cultures, exemplified by African tribal societies, citizens have
low cognitive, affective, and evaluative orientation towards the four types of
political objects. In these simpler traditional societies, there are no
specialized political roles and little expectation for political change (pgs. 17;
20). Here, “the individual thinks of his family’s advantage as the only goal to
pursue, or conceives of his role in the political system in familistic terms”

In subject cultures, there is high cognitive, affective, and evaluative

orientation towards the political system and policy outputs, but orientations
towards input objects (like political parties) and the self as an active
participants are minimal. Thus orientation towards the system and its
outputs is channeled via a relatively detached, passive relationship on the
part of the citizen . Subject cultures are most compatible with centralized,
authoritarian political structures (pgs. 17; 20). Indeed, for the subject “the
law is something he obeys, not something he helps shape” (pg. 118).

In participant cultures, members of society have high cognitive, affective,

and evaluative orientation to the political system, the input objects, the
policy outputs, and recognize the self as an active participant in the polity.
Social actors tend to be activist and mobilized. In general, participant
cultures are most compatible with democratic political structures (pg. 20).
Here, the citizen is expected to have “the virtues of the subject – to obey
the law, to be loyal – but he is also expected to take some part in the
formation of decisions” (pg. 118).
✅ Part 1: Orientation Type (Choose: Evaluative, Cognitive, Affective)
1.​ Do the national government to combat the Omicron Philippines?​
➤ Evaluative​

2.​ How many Senators will be elected in the May 9, 2022 elections?​
➤ Cognitive​

3.​ What type of government does the Philippines adopt?​

➤ Cognitive​

4.​ Are the new campaign rules of the COMELEC effective or not effective in deterring
vote-buying?​
➤ Evaluative​

5.​ Do you take pride in the achievement of Hidilyn Diaz in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?​
➤ Affective​

6.​ How many times are the Senators eligible for re-election?​
➤ Cognitive​

7.​ Do you ever find election campaigns as informative and pleasant?​

➤ Affective​

8.​ Do you follow regularly, from time to time, or never, the weekly press conferences
of President Duterte?​
➤ Cognitive​

9.​ Do you think all Filipinos are given equal access in the COVID-19 vaccination
Program?​
➤ Evaluative​

10.​As an overseas Filipino contract worker, do you profess loyalty to the Philippine
flag and the whole country?​
➤ Affective​

11.​Do the actions of the national government effective enough to combat the
Omicron infection in the Philippines?​
➤ Evaluative​
✅ Part 2: Types of Political Culture (Choose: Parochial, Subject,
Participant)

1.​ Citizens have low awareness, low expectations, and low participation​
➤ Parochial​

2.​ Citizens have high expectations of the government and active personal
participation in politics​
➤ Participant​

3.​ This type of culture is central to the principles of any democratic system​
➤ Participant​

4.​ Citizens manifest higher levels of awareness & expectations but very minimal
political participation​
➤ Subject​

5.​ People do not expect something good from the government and not inclined to
participate in politics because they believe that it is an elite domain​
➤ Parochial​

6.​ Perceives government negatively and citizens are apathetic​

➤ Parochial​

7.​ Largely associated with authoritarian regimes​

➤ Subject​

8.​ Citizens role is seen within the traditional context of the family​
➤ Parochial​

9.​ Citizens manifest the important virtues of obedience to the law, loyalty to the state
and are also expected to take some part in the formation of decisions​
➤ Participant​

10.​Citizens have very strong cognitive orientations on the outputs but weak
participation on the inputs​
➤ Subject​

✅ Part 3: Identification (Write the Concept or Term Described)

1.​ Switching of party loyalty and allegiance among politicians during political
campaigns and immediately after election is perennially present in the Filipino
political culture. This bad political practice or act is known as​
➤ Turncoatism​

2.​ In classifying political cultures, Almond and Verba asserted that 2 things need to
be considered: the political objects and the individuals ______ towards their
political system​
➤ orientations​

3.​ _______ refers to the pattern of shared values, moral norms, beliefs expectations,
and attitudes that relate to politics and its social context.​
➤ Political culture​

4.​ In classifying political cultures, Almond and Verba utilized this sociological theory
of Structural ________​
➤ Functionalism​

5.​ ________ is characterized by the monopoly of the exercise of domination by

members of a well-known family in local or national​
➤ Political dynasty