KINNAIRD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

ASSIGNMENT: 2
SUBMITTED BY: BIA SOHAIL
SUBMITTED TO: MISS AMINAH GILLANI
SUBMITTED ON: 27-9-22
COURSE: INTRODUCION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE
TOPIC: “IMPROVEMENT IN POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR AS ONE OF
THE UTILITIES OF POLITICAL SCIENCE CAN PLAY AN IMPORTANT
ROLE IN INFLUENCING THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF PAKISTAN.
ANALYSE THIS THOUGHT WITH SUBSTANTIAL ARGUMENTS AND
RELEVANT EXAMPLES”.

INTRODUCTION:
WHAT IS POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR?
According to Professor Jaime Settle:
“Political behavior is basically the study of the way people think, feel and act with regard to
politics. This include public opinion, ideology, partisanship, political knowledge, participation,
campaigns, media, and polarization.”

ROLE OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR IN PAKISTANI POLITICS:

The nature of political behavior in the culture of Pakistani politics is of dwindling kind. We
cannot say that people are not aware of the politics but they are not aware of the nature and
ideological aspects of politics of Pakistani culture. However, as compare to the past, there are a
lot of changes in the citizens of Pakistan regarding their political behavior, psychology, their
opinions about modern politics, methodology of research regarding their way of thinking. Now
people are educated enough to demarcate clearly the boundaries between legal means and extra
constitutional means and thus can avoid violence and other undesirable means.

BEHAVIOUR OF POLITICALLY SKILLED INDIVIDUALS

Political science also concentrates on an analysis, behavior, attitudes, and trends of those who are
engaged in political activities. This type of survey includes not only the behavior of decision
makers, but also of the voters, political workers and that of civil servants who are engaged in
policy implementation.

 INTERESTS OF VOTERS:
Interests of voters in the managing ability of decision makers is one of the most important
role that influence the political culture of Pakistan. If a voter is not taking interest in the
decisions, managements, ideology and behavior of political parties and their leaders then
there is a high chance that anarchy prevails in the society. For example, in past, Pakistan
faced a lot of difficulties in its political system due to lack of interest of people in politics.
Usually people followed the decisions of their forefathers and fathers in order to vote a
specific political party.
 But today, as the interest of people in political science is emerging, people are more
concerned about political parties, their interests and working ideology of different
political parties.

KNOWLEDGE &
SKILLS

BEHAVIOUR OF
VOTERS

PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIAL
FACTORS BEHAVIOUR

 TRAINED POLITICAL SKILLS:

Political skill is generally an individual difference and a set of behaviors that can
fluctuate through situational factors. It is important that a person must have political skills
in order to hold their political responsibilities. Trained political skills developed by
critical thinking of political science and it has a vast affect on political behavior.

 POLITICAL CONCIOUSNESS:
By this factor, a citizen is able to have a knowledge regarding governmental affairs.
Pakistan has seen a lot of ups and downs due to menace of corruption. A lot of people were
not aware about the legislative, executive and state history of Pakistan and are not even
aware of the political culture and history of our country. For example, in America, Black
Consciousness Movement , which calls upon Blacks to pursue their “true” political
trajectory and rejecting raciest ideas about Blacks , rejecting White rule of the nation, and
restoring Black identity, history and power.
However, in Pakistan, the unequal allocations of wealth and power lead to people to accept
the situation of false distribution of powers in state.

100% Chart Title

80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Punjab Sindh KPK Balochistan

Series 1 Series 2 Column1

% of political awareness in Pakistan

 LOYALITY:
Political behavior also revolves around the loyalties of people with specific political parties
and association groups. While a person’s thoughts tend to be shaped by his or her political
ideology and political thinking. While if there are conditions of inequality like in some areas
of Pakistan, it creates ideologies which confuse people about their true aspirations, loyalties,
and purposes. However, as compare to the current situation of political culture of Pakistan,
improvement in political behavior help to keep people from realizing that it is hey who
produce wealth, they who deserve the fruits of the land, all who can prosper: instead of
literally thinking for themselves, they think the thoughts given to them by the ruling class of
Pakistan.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON POLITICAL CULTURE OF

PAKISTAN:
In political culture of Pakistan, people basically believe on the fact “Seeing Is Believing”.
We believe on everything we saw on social media. As for the public, so much information
coming in from diverse sources, it is easy to fall into the trap of misinformation. Besides
the magazines, digests, newspapers, research papers, documentary films, functions of
cultural shows of politics provides much information and awareness about the latest political
developments and situation. It is a matter of fact that the social and cultural life of any
society, tribe and country is always changed with the passage of time. The recent events in
Pakistan are a glaring example of this reality.

VIEWS OF PAKISTANIS REGARDING THEIR POLITICAL CULTURE:

We all know that in the past Pakistanis saw their country in crisis. They gave their national
government lower ratings than at any time in previous decade and almost no one was
satisfied with national conditions of country. Crime and terrorism are seen as major
problems by everyone. And huge percentages of Pakistanis saw their country struggling
with corruption and deteriorating economy. But with the passage of time, with the help of
ideology of political science, now we are able to deal with the system of politics in Pakistan
and now we are much aware of ore rights, our role in politics, our behavior regarding
political parties and leaders of those parties. We are much aware of the culture of Pakistani
politics.

POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR IN PAKISTAN- A SURVEY:

This survey is related to the behavior of people regarding the political culture of Pakistan. The
survey was conducted by Pak Institute for Peace Studies. The objective of this exercise was to
identify some of the key determinants of political behavior in Pakistan. This survey covers all
provinces of Pakistan as well as the federal capital area of Islamabad which is clubbed here with
its twin city of Rawalpindi. Some results regarding this survey were quite positive with respect to
different political parties and their ideology regarding Pakistani political culture.
Some of the results of this survey go against the conventional wisdom of Pakistani electoral
politics.

Total interviews 934

Surveyed cities:
1. Islamabad/Rawalpindi
2. Lahore, Gujranwala
3. Peshawar
4. Karachi
5. Quetta

SURVEY RESULTS:
RESPONSE CATEGORIES TOTAL RESPONSES
IDEOLOGY OF PARTY 413
CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP 360
ETHNIC OR RELIGIOUS 46
AFFILIATION
ANY OTHERS 12

DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN:

As we all know that political science has gained much importance in democratic developments in
many developed and developing countries including Pakistan. Now people are politically trained
and are aware that no person or any group can claim power on hereditary basis which is quite in
power in past and a little bit in present in Pakistan. Obviously in the past, it was quite difficult
for an ordinary person to evolve in politics but as compare to the past, due to the knowledge of
political science and due to concerned political behavior, it is now very much easy for a person
to join politics after having much knowledge of political science.

ROLE OF WOMEN IN PAKISTANI POLITICS:

The role of women in Pakistani politics is described clearly by a political thinker Muhammed
Ali Awan. According to his opinion, various indicators like population ratio, school enrollment,
literacy rate, access to basic health service, facility to vote, and to join a political party was a
disparity between men and women. However, in the domain of politics, the last 16 years have
witnessed significant developments in terms of women’s participation. Most significantly, the
political participation of women has increased in legislative bodies However, when we look at
the elections of 2008 and 2013 we can observe some fluctuating trends. In the 2013 election,
women acquired 70 out of 342 seats in the lower house of the national legislature, almost 20.5%
of the total number of seats. In the upper house, women were elected to 17 out of 100 seats, 17%
of the total number of seats. When this is compared to the 2008 election, we see that a slightly
higher proportion of women participated in 2013. In the 2008 election, 34 women were
nominated by political parties to stand for election. In the 2013 election, 36 women acquired
nominations by political parties. Now we can clearly say that the developments made by women
in politics or the role of women in enhancing political culture of Pakistan is quite efficient.

Here is the survey of the percentage of women elected in National Assembly from 1947 to 2012.

% OF WOMEN ELECTED IN N.A:

5%

4%

3%

2%

1%

0%
1947-69 1977 majlis-e-shoora 1988-93 1997 2008-12

From 1947 - 2012

CONCLUSION OF DISCUSSION:
So the basic conclusion of political behavior in influencing the political culture of Pakistan is
that it brings a lot of differences in the political system of Pakistan as compare to the past. Now
in political science, political behavior is the major utility and has a vast effect on any political
culture of any state, city or country including the ideology of politics of Pakistan. However, it is
literally emerging day by day in Pakistan and leaving great impacts on Pakistani politics and the
citizens of Pakistan.