Theories of Comparative Politics

Political Parties as Transmitters of Political

Culture: Competitive Party Dynamics and
Political Sub-cultures in Pakistan
by
Farhan Hanif Siddiqi

Presented by:

Danyal Tariq

MSc International Relations

Introduction
The article analyses the political culture of Pakistan at the meso level. The author is a Professor
of International Relations at the University of Karachi and has a keen interest in discussing the
issues of ethnicity, nationalism, ethnic conflicts, and movements in Pakistan. This article,
however, discusses the political parties shaping and influencing the culture of politics in
Pakistan. It also identifies the particular beliefs and morals of the mainstream people who opt to
support whichever party’s manifesto and vote for it. The identification of the viewpoint of the
political parties is also expressed, with regards to democracy, civil-military relations, and
federalism. The difference between the mass and elite political culture has been supportive to
evaluate the political culture. The three types of political cultures – Parochial, subject, and
participant have distinctive systems of politics.

Analysis
In the parochial culture of politics, politics is often linked with the stratified society in which the
loyalties of the people are tied with their respected tribes, groups, religious affiliation, clan or
sub-clan, which is often the cause for outweighing their faithfulness with the central political
system, making it a traditional one. Contrarily, in subject political culture, elitism and
authoritarianism are on the peak as people are alienated with the political procedures which are
monitored by the elites of the state and exploited to for their edge. The public is quite passive
participants of the political system in this kind of political system. However, the participant
political culture is interlinked with the democratic political system and the people have a direct
orientation with the system. It is often true that the political culture is homogenous and variations
can be found even within a single culture of politics.

Nondemocratic states can be characterized by elitism and it is often observed that there is a crisis
of leadership due to little input by the people. Democratic states take the public factor into the
decision-making and the societal attitudes play an important role in determining the political
culture. With the political parties transmitting the political culture, the electoral voting is
undermined. Popular political parties have a pivotal role to transmit and shape the beliefs of the
public towards political issues. Effective and successful political parties often practice the
interests, values, and needs of the society and efficiently redefine them for gaining more success
in the electoral process.

In the case of Pakistan, the public political desires are impacted by the agenda-setting of the
political groups. Pakistan’s political culture can be seen in the light of three schools of thought.
The first one is traditionalists, who reject modernity and focus on the resurrection of the Islamic
practices. The second one is secularists, who are cut off from the religious masses of the society
and their appeal is narrowed with a particular privileged class only. The third school of thought
is revivalists, who tend to interlink the other two schools of thought to form a more inclusive
type of society, as their founding fathers Iqbal and Jinnah wished.

The failure to ideologically cohere the revivalism in the life of the public has contributed to
Pakistan’s most political crisis such as the civil-military discord, violence, and ethnic issues.
Jinnah was pro-vocal in disguising provincialism and even called it a curse to be get ridden off.
Over the years, ethnicity was used as political manifestos and subjugated the national identity
with the provincial identity. As a result, the revivalist political culture left gradually from the
cards of the political elites, with more help coming from the military intervention, who wished to
see this continued socio-political crisis to legitimize and prolong their coups.

Conclusion
Dynastic and family politics are quite relevant in the political culture of Pakistan, with two out of
three mainstream political parties trying to instrumentalize on the legacies of their ancestors. The
personality cult of the ruler, whether military or civilian, affects the characterization of the
politics in Pakistan. All rulers have come and gone, portraying as the saviors of the nation with
little to no contribution in the betterment of the political culture. The trend of personification of
the personalities is still on the rise and is inherited very much in the comparatively smaller
political parties. Pakistan’s political culture has also newly seen the accountability manifestos of
the political elites. It is yet to see, however, that how much success this new popular manifesto,
would yield positive results and if it can contribute to changing the political culture of the
country.