Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 6 Political Culture
- Political culture is a sociological concept. It is formed by attitudes and faiths of people towards politics.
- Development of common lifestyle and views come under general culture. Political culture is a part of general culture and it is related to public viewpoint towards political administration.
Meaning and Definition of Political Culture:
- Amond and Powell, David Eastorn, Spiro, Lousian Pie and Sydney Barbara, etc. are the important scholars who have expressed their views regarding political culture.
- Amond and Powell were the first to present the concept of political culture in context with developing countries.
- Political culture is the expression of tendency, reaction and expectation of members of a political system.
Determinants of Political Culture:
- History, religious faiths, geographical conditions, socio-economic environment, ideologies, education, language, customs-traditions, etc. are the main determining elements of political culture.
- The formation and development of political culture of a country takes place through the historical traditions and moral values of that country.
- Religions play an important role in formation of political culture.
- Geographical situation, available resources and nature of public of a country also help in building the political culture of that country.
- The socials, religious and racial diversity, industrialisation and public traditions of a country also play important role in building the nature of political culture.
- Ideologies like liberalism, capitalism, marxism, etc. are also important as they deeply affect the political culture.
- Scientific and technical progress, press and media ; level of education, language and customs play an important role in the formation of political culture.
Characteristics of Political Culture:
- Following are the chief characteristics of political culture — Coordinating form, dedication to moral values, abstract form, dynamic and active nature.
Political Culture and Democracy:
- In the decade of 1950-60, different scholars started the study of political system of their countries through political culture approach.
- For a democratic administrative system, an appropriate and sufficient social atmosphere can be developed through political culture only.
- The most significant and experienced research on the relations between political culture and democracy was, first of all, presented by Garbriel Amond and Sydney Barbara in their famous work ‘The Civic Culture : Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations.’
Kinds of Political Culture:
- Amond has mentioned four types of political cultures— Anglo-American Political System, Continental European Political System, Non-western or Pre-industrial Political System, Totalitarian Political System.
- Wiseman has described three types of pure political cultures – narrow, subject and partner. He has also described three types of mixed political cultures — narrow subject, partner and narrow partner.
Political Culture and Political Socialization:
- The qualities, faiths or beliefs and emotions of political culture are passed on to future generations through political socialization.
- Political system develops the power to bear pressure and tension through political socialization.
Importance of Political Culture:
- As a result of development of concept of political culture, the center point of study of scholars has shifted from formal institutions to political society.
- The concept of political culture has tried to bring rationality in the study of political science.
Conclusion:
- Political culture is an important ideology for comparative political institutions.
RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 6 Important Terms
- Political Culture : Political culture is a part of general culture. It is sum total of moral values, emotional temperaments and faiths of people related to their political system.
- Regulators of Political Culture : These are factors / elements / components or variables that determine the shape and nature of political culture.
- Conscious Orientation : In this, the person prepares himself to take part in political culture.
- Emotional Orientation : In this, the person begins to love or hate, like or dislike the political activities.
- Evaluative Orientation : Through this, the person examines the political activities and rules and then decides his/her inclination towards a political group or party.
- Political System : It is the combined form of all such things that help in maintaining peace, security and order in society. The Legislative, the Judiciary and the Executive are its main components.
- Liberalism : An ideology of modem age that stresses liberty and equality of humans.
- Democracy : It is a kind of political system in which people elect their representative themselves directly or indirectly.
- Capitalism : It is a kind of economic system in which most of the economic resources are in the hands of very few dominant people and they misuse them for their selfishness.
- Elite Culture : This is the culture of those people who are a part of government and a community that participates in government decisions.
- Common Culture : This is the culture (lifestyle and moral values) of those people who neither have political power nor play any role in administrative decisions.
- Colonies : Commonly this term represents those countries which were politically, culturally and economically backward and were under control of comparatively developed countries.
- Marxism : It is the another name of communism because communism was broadly explained and popularised by Karl Marx. It supports social justice and is against atrocities of capitalism.
- Dictatorship : Dictatorship means the rule of a single person who has total power of a country in his hands and he gets this power by force. This kind of political system is also known as Autocracy.
- Totalitarianism : It is a political system in which rule or ruler (State) is considered above all. According to this system, state has complete right over the life of man.
- First World War : It was fought from 1914 to 1918.
- Second World War : It was fought from 1939 to 1945.
- Developed Countries : These are those countries whose per capita income (one person’s annual income) is above ? 37,000. As USA, Australia, France, Canada, Russia, England, etc.
- Third World : There was a group of some Asian, African and Latin American countries which remained separate from the policies of super powers, USA and Russia. This group was called Third World and it supported the policy of non-alignment.
- Socialism : In this system, the society is considered the owner of all the means of production and no one has personal property.
- Industrialisation : It is a process in which paramount importance is given to the establishment and development of factories, machines and industrial units to uplift the economy of a country.
- Authority (Power) : The power applied over a person or public by a constitutional agency is called authority.
- Amond and Powell: They were famous political thinkers. They gave detailed description of political culture.
- Sydney Barbara : He was a famous political scholar.
- Lousian Pie : He was a famous political thinker. He related political culture with attitudes, faiths and emotions.
- Kohner : He was a famous political thinker. He described the development of political culture on the basis of role played by army in government. General Culture : Common lifestyle and common people’s outlook constitute general culture.
- General Culture : Common lifestyle and common people’s outlook constitute general culture.
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