Political culture

Political culture is defined by the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences as the "set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system". It encompasses both the political ideals and operating norms of a polity. Political culture is thus the manifestation of the psychological and subjective dimensions of politics. A political culture is the product of both the history of a political system and the histories of the members. Thus it is rooted equally in public events and private experience.

In 1963, two Americans, Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, outlined three pure types of political culture that can combine to create civic culture. These three key features expressed by both men were composed to establish a link between the public and the government. The first of these features is "deference", which considers the concepts of respect, acknowledgment of "inferiority" or "superiority", and authority in society.

The second key feature is "consensus", which represents the key link between government and public agreement and appeasement. Support for appeasement may not always be shared by the whole nation, but as a whole people agree to sustain it, meaning it is a common agreement. There are various "Examples of Consensus" in British political culture: how we are governed as a whole, consenus regarding the welfare state, agreement as to who acts as head of state, and with what powers.

The third feature of British political culture is "homogeneity". Church attendance as a whole is decreasing. Sections of the Scottish and Welsh populations have called for independence.

The term political culture was brought into political science to promote the American political system. The concept was used by Gabriel Almond in the late 50s, and outlined in The Civic Culture (1963, Almond & Verba), but was soon opposed by two European political scientists, Gerhard Lehmbruch and Arend Lijphart. Lehmbruch analysed politics in Switzerland and Austria and Lijphart analysed politics in Netherlands. Both argued that there are political systems that are more stable than the one in the USA.

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