Political Culture

1. Political Culture Citizen attitudes and orientations and their impact

2. Political Culture • Attitudes and orientations toward politics: how a group of people (e.g a social class, an ethnic group, a region, or a nation) think • about themselves • about others • about how they are governed • about how they ought to be governed…..

3. Political culture v. ideology different from an ideology or a religion • not a (logically) constrained or integrated belief system, but rather sets of attitudes or orientations distributed among a given population • these can be evenly or unevenly distributed, • widely or narrowly held • a society can have distinct subcultures

4. Common to distinguish among: • Homogeneous v. fragmented political cultures • mass v. elite political culture: • mass political culture = attitudes and orientations toward politics held by the population as a whole • elite political culture = orientations held by those who have (or are likely to hold) power

5. Sources of political culture:

6. What shapes political culture? Different views: • Family, school, society through primary political socialization • The regime and political system, as a consequence of the ways in which people experience it – secondary political socialization

7. Political culture Society Experience with political system Political Culture Different views:

8. Some questions and problems: • Difference between political culture and national character? • How can we characterize political culture(s) • What difference does political culture make? • Do you need a democratic political culture in order to sustain democracy? • What constitutes a democratic political culture? • Is it sufficient for elites to be committed to democracy or must ordinary citizens be so committed as well?

9. Remaking German political culture: • Imperial Germany (1871-1918) • A fragmented and divided society • prevailing values authoritarian • The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) • democratic regime, established following surrender • highly fragmented • regime lacked legitimacy: some groups supported it, others tolerated, but few loved • aristocracy, business elites, military fail to support regime when it was challenged • totalitarian regime established by legal means

10. Postwar Germany • Occupied, divided into 4 occupation zones • Liberal democratic regime established in the three Western zones • Communist regime in the eastern (Soviet) zone • Problem for both east and west: how to establish new regimes in a country which had given fervent support to Nazism

11. Solutions: • In the east, the solution is Communism: remake the economy – end capitalism and you end Nazism • In the west, political culture is gradually reshaped: • Bonn Basic Law (temporary constitution – still in effect) establishes citizen rights, liberal democratic order • West Germans initially quiescent, accepting… proud of economic achievements • Holocaust eventually acknowledged, dealt with in schools • Political system gains acceptance, in part because of economic success, stability, integration into Europe

12. Contemporary Germany: • Problem of bringing together east and west • Different experience of ‘Ossies’ and ‘Wessies’ • Problem of who belongs: • East v west • Immigrants and refugees • Question of Germany’s role in the world

13. Contrasts between Germany and Austria • Austria’s self image as victim • Limited de-nazification • Reluctance to come to terms with Holocaust • Today: far greater support for parties of the right

14. Remaking political culture in countries transiting to democracy: • What does it take to remake elite political culture? • What does it take to remake mass political culture – if it has to be remade?