Lecture
The concept of "political culture" first appeared in the work of the American scientist H. Bayer "The system of government of European states" (1956). Later, a book by the American authors G. Almond and S. Verba "The Culture of a Citizen" (1963) was published, which offers a comparative analysis of the political cultures of the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, and Mexico. The sixties are a kind of "peak" in the popularity of research into the problems of political culture and the associated socialization of society. “Political socialization” means the process of entering a person into the system of political relations of a society, entering into political activity and mastering the political experience of previous generations. Such an interest in the problems of political culture and political socialization is explained by the fact that the post-war period was a time when political scientists started a close study of the ordinary citizen and his behavior in the political sphere. This interest was especially manifested in the Anglo-American direction of political science.
Another important impulse that led to active research on political culture was the need to clarify the failure of developing countries to replicate Western European models when creating political systems.
In the process of research, political scientists began to conclude that not only economic factors affect the formation of political institutions in a particular country, but also the country's historical features, national culture, confessional factor, traditions of everyday life, national psychology .
In addition, in the 1960s, he pushed to analyze political culture and political socialization of political scientists. crisis of political systems in developed European countries and the USA. In the 1960s-70s. In these countries, the youth counterculture manifested itself, racial unrest intensified, an ecological movement emerged that grew out of various alternative movements, the feminist movement intensified, and finally the power of the so-called “fourth estate” - the media - became apparent.
All these processes and events have become the object of theoretical understanding. It was important to understand their causes, to analyze the behavior of modern man in the new changed conditions of the second half of the 20th century.
As a result of research, political scientists came to the conclusion that there are two very contradictory trends in the political life of modern society. First of all, the need for political activity of people and their political development is obvious. On the other hand, the political alienation of the modern man from the government and its institutions and his self-alienation are manifested. To understand why and how these trends coexist in modern society can be achieved by analyzing the problems of political culture and political socialization.
However, in political science there is no single approach to the definition of political culture. There is a very broad interpretation of the category "political culture", in which the latter is equated to the concept of "political system". But there is also a narrow interpretation of the category "political culture" when it is reduced only to a complex of political orientations. Both of these interpretations of the category "political culture" seem to be illegal.
Such a diversity of opinions about the category of "political culture" is explained by the many-sided nature of the phenomenon of political culture located at the junction of two spheres of social life - political and spiritual . From an analysis of the dozens of definitions of political culture that exist, one can, however, conclude that political culture is considered most often as part of such a phenomenon as national culture. And therefore, it is inextricably linked with the national historical, socio-cultural, religious traditions and customs of the country.
At the same time, political culture is an organic part of the political system of society. It influences all political processes in society: the formation and activities of state and political institutions, public organizations and movements; influences the choice of political leaders, the political behavior of people, the formation of their political beliefs and sympathies, largely determines the norms that exist in the political practice of society.
Thus, political culture can be defined as part of a country's national culture, reflecting the level of political consciousness, political values of a nation, traditional political commitment to society, representing the basis for acceptance (or rejection) in public opinion of certain political concepts or political decisions of the government. .
If political culture is viewed as an organic part of a national culture, then it seems improper to talk about the absence of political culture in any country. The political culture of the people always has specific features, national and regional features of development. It may not be similar to the liberal-democratic model of the political culture of Western European countries or the United States, but this "dissimilarity" does not at all mean its lack or insufficient development.
When analyzing the political culture of the West, there are two models of political culture: liberal-democratic and totalitarian (or authoritarian-totalitarian) .
Liberal-democratic model of political culture evolved in the historical and socio-economic conditions of the XVIII century. Its basis is classical liberalism with its main value - individual freedom. The ideas that feed the liberal-democratic model of political culture are ideas about the rule of law, civil society, pluralism, parliamentarism.
The totalitarian model of political culture is characterized by leaderism, the division of society into supporters and opponents of the regime and the dominant ideology. Opponents of the regime in society are perceived as enemies of the nation. In addition, the political culture of totalitarian regimes is based on explicit social conformity.
In the most political culture can be distinguished rational and emotional level. The rational level is formed under the influence of economic and social interests, depends on the social status of the individual (if we are talking about the political culture of the individual) or on the position of the social group in society (if we are talking about the political culture of the social group). It is social interests that determine the ideological attitudes and political orientations of the individual or social group. The emotional level , which includes, to a certain extent, irrational elements, develops under the influence of the national specifics of the country's culture and the historical factors of its development.
Political culture is manifested through political consciousness and political behavior of people, and also finds its expression in the culture of the functioning of the political system itself.
The constituent elements of political culture are:
Political consciousness , the most important element of political culture, can be defined as a reflection in the minds of people of political realities.
Political consciousness, like political culture, depends on the living conditions of an individual, a social group, or a nation. If we are talking about an individual, then her political consciousness is determined, on the one hand, by the social status of the individual, the degree of education, the direction of upbringing, and the social environment in which the individual is at present. On the other hand, the political consciousness of the individual is formed by political institutions, state organizations and the mass media.
You can talk about the national, group and individual levels of political consciousness.
In the sphere of political consciousness, indicators of political culture are:
The political culture in the sphere of political behavior of citizens can be judged by the level and forms of interaction with political institutions, the level of interaction with public and civic associations, the degree of participation in political life and the type of electoral behavior.
There are various options for classifying types of political cultures. One of the options known in Western political science was proposed by American researchers Almond and Powell .
These authors distinguish three types of political cultures:
Parish culture is characterized by an indifferent attitude to the national political system, which is expressed in the lack of citizens' reaction to the actions of political institutions, in the lack of interest in the central government and, conversely, in the interest of political life "on the ground". Dependent political culture is more interested in the activities of the authorities. Citizens have their own idea of power, but they are submissive to it, even with the negative nature of its activities. With this type of political culture, citizens do not hope by personal participation to change anything in the activities of the authorities. Finally, a participatory culture is characterized by active participation. Citizens consider themselves entitled to influence power; they carry out this “interference” by participating in elections, in the activities of parties, pressure groups. With this classification, it is meant that democracy is the ideal regime that should be taken as a model, but this provision is not indisputable for all.
The national political culture includes autonomous subsystems - political subcultures. Subcultures are peculiar to social, religious, age and ethnic groups. In addition, subcultures may arise on the basis of regions. As a rule, political subcultures are developed in multinational countries, they also exist in societies where separatism and segregation take place.
In the formation of political culture, in the process of political socialization there is both a spontaneous and purposeful beginning. By purposeful, they mean the informational and ideological activity of social and political institutions, various ideological concepts that are embedded in the public consciousness of citizens.
The influence of the media on the formation of public opinion and on the process of political socialization is extremely great . The media, the so-called "fourth power" - is part of a complex political machine. The “fourth power” can subvert political authorities and shape them, can misinform citizens, manipulate their minds. The positive tasks of the media should include the assistance of the state in the implementation of socio-economic cultural programs, coverage of political events, the implementation of social control over power.
Speaking about the role of the “fourth estate” in political life, one should pay special attention to the problem of manipulating public consciousness . Analyzing various ways of manipulating public consciousness, one can single out among the most important ones - the establishment of control over the information apparatus and the formation of ideas at all levels.
In the process of controlling and limiting information, censorship is involved, and where it is not an official institution, various “pressure groups” perform its functions. Misinformation is used for manipulating the public consciousness, among the main techniques of which the so-called “dissected information” stands out. The degree of development of political culture largely depends on the degree of public awareness.
In conclusion, we draw some conclusions. Being an organic part of the political system, the political culture is a qualitative characteristic of the functioning of the political system itself and in many respects determines the political processes in society .
It is impossible to overly simplify the influence of political culture on the development of a political system and the course of political processes in society and assess this influence as the dominant one. But, on the other hand, the political culture should be put in one of the first rows of those factors that determine the political processes in society and, moreover, the development prospects of a particular country.
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Political science
Terms: Political science