POLITICAL

culture, socialisation & participation

Lecture Notes by
DR. LALNUNDIKA HNAMTE
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Pachhunga University College
nundikahnamte@gmail.com
 • Pye (1995) defined political culture as the sum of
fundamental values, sentiments and knowledge that
give form and substance to political processes
• Pol. culture is most often studied from a behavioral
political socialisation

political culture
perspective, using survey of individuals’ attitudes
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• Our attitudes and values inevitably affect how we

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act, and it is the same with politics.

• A nation’s political culture includes its citizens’
orientations towards 3 levels:
1) The political system
2) The political and policy-making process
3) Policy outputs and outcomes
 • Gabriel Almond – Father of modern studies of pol.
culture
• Almond & Verba- in The Civic Culture (1963)
studied 5 nations: USA, UK, W. Germany, Italy &
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Mexico
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• They distinguished 3 pure types of pol. culture

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based on the level and type of pol. participation

and nature of people’s attitude towards politics
(see next page)
 1. Participant Political Culture
• Participants are involved in political process.
• They have knowledge about politics, makes
demands on policies and give their support on the
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basis of performance
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2. Subject Political Culture

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• Subjects passively obey govt. officials and the law.

• They do not vote or actively participate in politics.
• Even when they vote, it is controlled.
3. Parochial Political Culture
• Parochials are hardly aware of govt. & politics.
• They may be illiterates, rural people in remote
areas or people who ignore politics and its impact
in their lives.
 • Civic Culture is an allegiant participant culture.
• It is a ballast/combination of the three types of
political cultures: participant, subject & parochial
• Participant culture combines, not replace subject &

political culture
parochial cultures

civic culture
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• If a nation’s pol. culture is too participant, with

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protests and agitations, it may disrupt the working

of a democracy
• If it is too subject, it is regimented or authoritarian
• Too parochial means the society still lives in
primitive or traditional system
• In a civic culture, there is a stable democracy
• Pol. culture and pol. structure are congruent
 PARTICIPANT
political culture

political culture
civic culture
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SUBJECT civic stable

political culture culture democracy

PAROCHIAL
political culture
 • Political Socialisation refers to the way in which pol.
values are formed and the pol. culture is transmitted
from one generation to the next.
• An individual’s political self will be a combination of

pol. socialisation
several feelings and attitudes such as nationalism,

political culture
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ethnic or class image, religious or ideological
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commitments, sense of rights and duties etc.

• 3 general points about pol. socialisation
1. Direct & Indirect socialisation
• Direct when it involves the explicit communication of
information, values or feelings towards politics
• Egs: civic courses in schools, indoctrination of children
by Islamic fundamentalists or communist pol. systems
 • Indirect when pol. views are unintentionally molded by
our experiences.
• Egs: relationship with parents, teachers & friends, or
growing up in times of hardship

pol. socialisation
2. Socialisation continues throughout an individual’s life, it

political culture
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is an ongoing process.
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3. Socialisation patterns in society can either be unifying

or divisive
 Agents of Political Socialisation
• Individuals in all societies are affected by agents of
socialisation, institutions and organisations that
influence pol. attributes.

political culture
pol. socialisation
1 Family 8 Political parties
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Direct contact with

2 Schools
3 Religious institutions
4 Peer groups
5 Social class & gender
6 Mass media
7 Interest groups
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9
govt. structures
# Write a note on the role of
each of them in molding
political culture
(see Almond, Powell, Storm &
Dalton (1970), Comparative
Politics Today: A World View,
pp.52-58.
 • Political Participation is the involvement of groups
and individuals at various levels of the pol. system
• It is the activity by individuals formally intended to
influence who governs or decisions taken by those

pol. socialisation

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who do

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• Conventional participation takes place within formal
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politics; unconventional participation is to a degree
outside or even against orthodox politics
• Political participation includes voting, protesting,
lobbying, campaigning, contact with
representatives, joining groups/parties etc.
• Monitoring (surveillance) consists in keeping an eye
on pol. devpts with the option to participate more
directly
 • It is a central mechanism of democracy where
conventional participation declined
• ‘To be watchful, alert and on guard are essential
attributes of citizenship’ – Rosanvallon

pol. socialisation

political culture
• Milbrath & Goel (1977) in How and Why do people

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get involved in politics? divided American
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population into 3 groups:
1) Gladiators: those who actively participate
2) Spectators: those who passively watch
3) Apathetics: those that are ignorant about it
• This classification is applicable to liberal
democracies
• It is based on an analogy of the Roman contests
 • Verba, et.al (1978) in the study of pol. engagement
in US identified 4 types of participants:
1) Voters
2) Campaigners (engage in canvassing)

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3) Communal activists (participate in organisations)

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4) Contractors (communicate with officials about
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individual problems)
 • Hierarchical degrees or extent of pol. participation
by Rush & Althoff (1971)

1 Holding pol. or adm. office

pol. socialisation
Seeking pol. or adm. office

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2

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3 Active membership in pol. org.
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4 Passive membership in pol. org.
5 Active membership in interest group
6 Passive membership in interest group
7 Participation in public meetings etc.
8 Participation in informal pol. discussion
9 General interest in politics
10 voting
11 apathy
• Political Exclusion is a condition where people
are effectively prevented from taking part in
collective decision-making because they occupy a
marginal position in the society. Eg. Drug users,

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migrant workers etc.

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• Putnam’s (1976) Law of Increasing Disproportion

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argued that the higher the level of pol. authority,
the greater will be the representation for high-
status social groups.
• Why? 1) Resources, 2) Pol. interest (Verba, 1995)
• Kittilson & Schwindt-Bayer argued that women lag
behind men in terms of representation in
parliament & business leadership positions – calls
them Gendered Institutions
References
Almond, Gabriel, G. Bingham Powell Jr., Kaare Storm,
Russell J. Dalton, Comparative Politics Today: A World
View

pol. socialisation

political culture
Ashraf, Ali and L.N. Sharma, Political Sociology: A

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New Grammar of Politics

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Hague, Rod and Martin Harrop, Comparative
Government and Politics
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