Introduction
Culture, broadly, is defined as a way of life. UNESCO's 2002 definition describes it as the set of distinctive spiritual, intellectual, and emotional features of a society — a social way of living and being. Culture shapes value systems and is bound up with traditional beliefs. Political culture, then, refers to the overall pattern of beliefs, attitudes, and values held by a society toward its political system. It is linked to the mentality, ways of thinking, and feelings of a people, and can further be understood as the sum of fundamental values, sentiments, and knowledge that give form and substance to the political process (Pye, 1965). It can also be understood as an attribute of a group — one that shares common meanings attached to political action.
Political Culture in Non-Democratic or Weakly Legitimate Regimes
In regimes where those ruling lack legitimacy flowing from free elections — a problem often rooted in the compromised or absent ballot box — rulers must resort to other means of engaging with the political culture of the society they govern. They tend to adopt one of several approaches:
1. Ignore — seen especially in military regimes, where rulers isolate themselves from the populace and largely avoid engaging with existing political culture.
2. Exploitative Political Culture — most commonly witnessed where authoritarian leaders selectively draw on elements of the existing political culture (religious, traditional, or ideological) that support and legitimize their rule — a pattern often associated with certain Islamic states.
3. Reconstruct — a situation in which rulers actively try to transform the values of their subjects to align with a new ideological order, a strategy particularly associated with communist regimes.
Types of Political Culture
1. Parochial Political Culture — characterized by very low awareness of or orientation toward political issues. Attitudes toward the political system, its inputs, and its outputs tend to be negative or indifferent, with unfavorable views of national institutions and political leaders. There is a general lack of awareness of and interest in political affairs.
2. Subjective Political Culture — the population is aware of the structures, functions, processes, history, myths, symbols, and issues of the political system, but tends to stay away from active political participation due to a feeling of political incompetence — a sense that they cannot meaningfully contribute to the formulation and execution of policy. They are nonetheless recognized as members of the political community.
3. Participant Political Culture — citizens display strong orientation toward the political system, its inputs, and its outputs, accompanied by a strong sense of political efficacy. They are active participants in their country's political life, feel competent to make demands on political authorities, and expect those authorities to take their views into account in policymaking. They actively contribute to the political system and stay informed about the decisions made by those in authority.
Conclusion
Political culture, then, is not a fixed or uniform national trait but a spectrum — ranging from parochial disengagement, through subject awareness without participation, to full participant engagement. How rulers relate to this culture — whether by ignoring, exploiting, or attempting to reconstruct it — reveals a great deal about the legitimacy and character of a political regime.
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