:star: the concept of political culture is attractive, but can be misused; cultures do not always coincide with states, and we should avoid the pitfalls of stereotypes about 'national cultures'
:star: the classic concern of research in political culture has been to identify the political attitudes most supportive of stable liberal democracy. Ideas such as civic culture, political trust, social capital, and post-materialism have all been used, and in some cases developed, with this goal in mind
:star: while most studies concentrate on mass culture, elite values possess direct political significance. Elites can exploit culture to further their political goals
:star: although political culture is sometimes criticised for its static quality, the drift to post-materialism - values that emphasise self-expression and the quality of life over materialist values such as economic growth and physical security - is an interesting attempt to understand how political culture changes
:star: the idea of conflict between transnational civilisations is a controversial attempt to apply cultural analysis to a post-ideological world. Within this strand, one interesting focus is provided by studies investigating the alleged contrasts between Western and Islamic cultures
:star: Much of the evidence suggests that, in authoritarian regimes, there is more support for strong leaders than for freedom and self-expression
political culture - the sum of individual values and norms regarding politics and the political system, or the culture of a group which gives shared meaning to political action
e.g. things we care about freedom, equality, rule of law, tolerance
our political culture is socialised by family, social group etc and takes a large external event to change your values
this is political socialisation
e.g. you cannot colonise and expect political culture to change with the institutions being why we still have communism in eastern europe
civic culture - a moderate political culture in which most people accept the obligation to participate in politics while still acknowledging the authority of the state and its right to take decision
political trust- the belief that rulers are generally well intentioned and effective in serving the interests of the governed
social capital - the collective value of social networks derived from communication, help and support among the members of these networks
Tocqueville - impressed with US democracy but didn't understand how it worked. Democracy means equality but if everyone is equal then no one will help or work for anyone else. we need a civic religion because what is to stop the dominant state?
3 ideal types of culture and citizen
- Parochial - strong focus on local community, undeveloped awareness of broader political ties, with little political roles
- subject culture - individuals are aware of national politics, top down system
- participant culture - citizen engagement at all levels (bottom up)
civic culture is a mix of all 3, with focus on ppt culture but cannot be wholly ppt due to no formal or informal ppts