Marcus A. Stadelmann - Political Science For Dummies

The civic culture is a classical behavioral study (see Chapter 2). Almond and Verba researched human behavior through empirical testing. For this reason, they set out and interviewed 5,000 people — 1,000 in each one of the five countries they had selected for their research. The five countries were two successful democracies, the U.S. and Great Britain; two classical failures of democracy, West Germany and Italy; and one lesser developed country, Mexico. The attempt was to find a culture in these five countries that could sustain democracy in the long run. If that was possible, a blueprint for democracy could be created to bring this civic culture to other countries. This in turn would allow for democracy not only to be spread globally but to actually maintain it over time.

In their study, Almond and Verba decided to personally interview 5,000 people in five countries. The most relevant questions concerning political culture were centered on these topics:

Cognition: They asked people whether they were familiar with their national government, knew about officeholders, and most important, knew how they could participate in the political process. The results were that knowledge of government and participation were high in Great Britain, West Germany, and the U.S. At the same time, cognition was high in northern Italy and low in southern Italy. In Mexico, cognition was low at the national level; however, at the local level, Mexicans were keenly aware of their political structures.

Feelings toward the system: Feelings of pride and support of the current form of government were very high in Great Britain and the U.S. In West Germany, people weren’t very proud of the structure of the system but supported it because it was efficient and delivered the goods. In Mexico, people were proud and supported their local system, but not their national political structure.

Partisanship: In both the U.S. and Great Britain, partisanship was low. Political science usually measures partisanship in a society by asking the following question: “Would you allow your child to marry someone with a different partisan identification?” Although this wasn’t a problem in Great Britain and the U.S., parents not having much of a problem being a Democrat and their child marrying a Republican, it matters in the other three countries. In both West Germany and Italy, people expressed great partisanship by refusing to consider such a marriage. In Mexico, the question wasn’t relevant because Mexico at this time was a one-party state ruled by the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party).

Civic obligation: The questions of civic obligation involved feeling an obligation to participate in politics by voting or participating in other ways. In both the U.S. and Great Britain, civic obligation was high, while in West Germany, people expressed an obligation to vote, but that was about it. In Italy and Mexico, feelings of civic obligation were low.

Civic competence: Civic competence refers to the public believing that it has an obligation to join and participate in civic organizations such as charities and religious organizations or just volunteering and helping members of the community. The U.S. scored highest in this category, with Great Britain coming in second. In West Germany and Italy, civic competence was low, most people believing that it was the government’s obligation to help the needy. In Mexico, civic competence was high at the local level but almost nonexistent at the national level.

Trust: This category refers to whether people trust the government to do what is right. While Americans and the British had a high level of trust in their government, West Germans and Italians did not. Mexicans, on the other hand, showed trust in the local government but not the national government.

Based on results from these questions, Almond and Verba categorized cultures in the five countries they studied and came up with not just one civic culture but three political cultures they found in each country. Furthermore, each country had a mix of the three cultures. See more on this in the next section.

The three cultures Almond and Verba found in each of the five countries are parochial political culture, subject political culture, and participant political culture.

In a parochial political culture, people don’t care very much about their national government. They don’t have a lot of information on it, have no attachment to it, and make no demands on it. In other words, people expect nothing from their national government and want it to leave them alone. They don’t like or dislike it and don’t participate in national politics.

At the same time, the parochial population is very close to their local form of government. In Mexico, for example, the people were familiar with their small city government structures, knew their mayors, and participated in local elections. They felt close to the locality and supported it.

Parochial cultures can still be found in remote parts of the U.S., such as rural West Virginia, and in tribal societies, such as Afghanistan and some African countries.

In a subject political culture, citizens tend to have a high level of political information. They’re familiar with many important issues of the day and know how to participate in the political process. However, they feel powerless and believe that their opinions don’t matter. In other words, they lack political efficacy. Further, they don’t have an attachment to the political system and don’t express any positive emotions toward it. They just expect benefits from government. As long as the government delivers the goods, subjects tend be passive and accept the political system in place. However, as soon as government is unable to deliver the goods anymore, they can easily turn against it and demand a change of government or the political system itself.

Good examples of countries where the majority of the population are/were subjects are the Soviet Union or present-day China. Citizens in both countries are/were well informed and expected the political structure to deliver benefits to them.

In a participant political culture, political scientists find the true democratic citizens. They understand how the political process works and they’re interested in the issues of the day. When they vote, they base their vote on knowledge of issues and candidate stances on issues. For this reason, they can hold their government accountable, and if they dislike what they see, they can replace it. Participants are further proud and supportive of their political system. They believe that they hold political power and can influence policy making. In other words, they believe that they have political efficacy. Finally, participants are active at all levels of politics; they don’t just vote but also volunteer for civic organizations. They’re not afraid to discuss politics at the dinner table and with friends. Participants are truly the backbone of a democracy.

Political efficacy refers to people feeling that they have some input in decision-making. In other words, they don’t feel powerless.

Instead of picking one of three political cultures discussed in the previous section, Almond and Verba claim that a country needs a mix of all three cultures to sustain democracy. A pure parochial society wouldn’t exist very long. Keep in mind that parochials feel no love or loyalty to a national government, instead focusing purely on the local level. If a whole nation consisted of people who don’t like the nation or the government in charge, it would collapse.