Fundamentals of Political Science

Dr. Sujian Guo

Professor of Political Science
San Francisco State Unversity
Email: sguo@sfsu.edu
http://bss.sfsu.edu/sguo
 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).
 Participant, Subject, and Parochial

System Input Output Self

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
 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 Lijpharts 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)