Fundamentals of Political Science Dr. Sujian Guo Professor of Political Science San Francisco State Unversity

Gabriel Almond (The Civic Culture, 1963) Political systems exist in and are born of a political culture. Therefore, to understand political system, you must understand political culture! –“Every political system is embedded in a particular pattern of orientations to political action. I have found it useful to refer to this as the political culture.” –“... orientation to politics involves three components: perception or cognition, preference or affect, evaluation or choice through application of standards or values to the cognitive and affective components.”

Definition Political culture refers to a particular distribution of cognitive, affective, and evaluative orientations toward a political system or political object. ** For more sophisticated development of the concept, see assigned article by Stephen Chilton

What is the relationship between political culture and political structure? Q: In other words, what kind of political culture would foster democracy and maintain the stability and effectiveness of democratic government? A: Civic Culture Civil Culture  Democracy  Civil Culture  Democratic stability  (US/UK vs. Italy/Germany)

What is the civic culture?  The civic culture is pluralistic, and “based on communication and persuasion, a culture of consensus and diversity, a culture that permits change but moderates it” (Almond and Verba 1963, p. 8).

What fosters and sustains the civic culture? Civic virtues, such as cooperativeness, social and inter-personal trust, compromise, rational and informed participation, etc.

Classification of Political Cultures “When we speak of the political culture of a society, we refer to the political system as internalized in the cognitions, feelings, and evaluations of its populations” –Cognitions: Knowledge about the political system –Affective:Feelings about the roles and the incumbents in these roles –Evaluation: How the individual feels about the performance of the system against standards and norms.

Where are the individuals oriented in a political system? 1) System as object Individual is oriented toward the system as a whole - has an understanding of the nation and its history and constitution 2)Input objects Individual is oriented in politics toward those roles and structures that emphasize inputs into the system that provide information and resources for decision making 3)Output objects Individual is oriented in politics toward roles and structures that emphasize decisions and actions that flow out of the political system 4)Self as object Individual sees him/herself as a participant in all aspects of the decision process. Believes he/she has rights, responsibilities, and capabilities

Three "ideal" Political Cultures In the parochial political culture, in which no clear differentiation of specific political roles and expectations exists among actors, i.e. "political specialization is minimal" and citizens have no knowledge and opinion of the structure of government, roles, political elite, and policy making. In the subject political culture, in which institutional and role differentiation exists in political life, but towards which citizens stand in largely passive relations and respond to the output of government. In the participant political culture, in which the relationships between specialized institutions and citizen opinion and activity is interactive and citizens have knowledge and opinions on them and contribute actively to the system they live in.

Participant, Subject, and Parochial "A participant is assumed to be aware of and informed about the political system in both its governmental and political aspects. A subject tends to be cognitively oriented primarily to the output side of government: the executive, bureaucracy, and judiciary. The parochial tends to be unaware, or only dimly aware, of the political system in all its aspects" (1963, p.79).

SystemInputOutputSelf Parochial Subject Participant Participant, Subject, and Parochial

1.Parochial a.Typical of tribal, feudal cultures b.No specialized roles (head of family, tribe, etc.) - roles are diffuse and changing c.No awareness of the system as a whole 2.Subject a.Typical of autocratic and charismatic leadership systems b.Individual is aware of the specialized governmental authority c.Oriented toward the decisions and outputs of the system - individual is the subject of the system - not a participant in it 3.Participant a.liberal-democracy or totalitarian movement b.Individuals are aware of the roles of government c.Individuals are oriented toward input in the decision making process d.Individuals recognize their benefits as the outputs of the system e.Individuals see themselves as participants Participant, Subject, and Parochial

Mixed political cultures ** Actual societies tend to exhibit combinations of these and other characteristics 1.Parochial-Subject Culture A typical of diffuse empires (Ottomans) 2.Subject-Participant A emerging liberal democracies of 19th century 3.Parochial-Participant A merging diverse democracies of the 20th century **What about the Cultural Revolution?

Almond and Verba on “civic culture” and “stable democracy” The civic culture exhibits participatory characteristics in which participatory action is based upon assumptions of rationality, and in such a way that “political culture and political structure are congruent” (31). Moreover, the civic culture, with its emphasis upon rational participation in political life, combines with the “subject and parochial political orientations.... The maintenance of these more traditional attitudes and their fusion with the participant orientations lead to a balanced political culture in which political activity, involvement, and rationality exist but are balanced by passivity, traditionality, and commitment.” (31-32). Q: Does China exhibits a civic culture?

Almond and Verba on “civic culture” and “stable democracy” Almond and Verba argue that if “a democratic political system is one in which the ordinary citizen participates in political decisions, a democratic political culture should consist of a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, perceptions and the like, that support participation” (Almond and Verba, 178). Moreover, associated with this participatory value/orientation is an assumption about the character of rational behavior in participation, as opposed to “emotional,” or “sentiment-driven” involvement in politics Q: What kind of participation in the Cultural Revolution?

Max Weber – Three types of society and authority Traditional authority – Charismatic authority – Legal and rational authority ||| Traditional society - revolutionary transitional - democratic society ||| (Subject culture) (participatory culture) (Civic culture) ||| Passive, obedient, active, emotional, nationalistic tolerant, compromise, rational

Charisma defined A certain quality of an individual personality, endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities, which are not obtainable by after-birth training and environmental factors, but are endorsed by the birth. –Charismatic/magnetic qualities for socio-political cohesion (vs. divine) –Leadership will/ spiritual leader vs. followers/ordinary people participation (vs. subject) –Historical and strategic vision with skilful methods to transform into the dynamics or driving forces of masses (vs. simply self-interest/power-driven) –Historically, there are good and bad cases

Arend Lijphart’s Critiques Danger of Reductionism or Individualistic Fallacy Having data or empirical observation at lower level of unit analysis to make statement or inference about empirical relationships at higher level of unit analysis, or in other words, using simplistic explanation to explain macro-level events or complicated social phenomenon. Sample: subset of people or individual members of the subset of population sampled and selected for a study from a larger population. Population: the entire set of individuals of the population to which the findings are to be generalized or inferred – it usually consists of all cases one intends to study.

Edward Muller and Arend Lijphart Problem in the direction of Causality – cause and effect (see Edward Muller) –civic culture (x) vs. democratic stability (y) –Democratic stability (x) vs. civic culture (y) support the causal relationship between civic culture and democratic stability (Inglehart) question the causal relationship – there might exist a reciprocal causation between civic culture and democratic stability (Ed. Muller)