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Different typologies of political culture have been proposed.
Political scientist William S. Stewart, all political behavior can be explained as participating in one or more of eight political cultures: anarchism, oligarchy, Tory corporatism, fascism, classical liberalism, radical liberalism, democratic socialism, and Leninist socialism. Societies that exemplify each of these cultures have existed historically.
Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, in The Civic Culture, outlined three pure types of political culture based on level and type of political participation and the nature of people's attitudes toward politics:
- Parochial - Where citizens are only remotely aware of the presence of central government, and live their lives near enough regardless of the decisions taken by the state. Distant and unaware of political phenomena. He has neither knowledge or interest in politics. In general congruent with a traditional political structure.
- Subject - Where citizens are aware of central government, and are heavily subjected to its decisions with little scope for dissent. The individual is aware of politics, its actors and institutions. It is affectively oriented towards politics, yet he is on the "downward flow" side of the politics. In general congruent with a centralized authoritarian structure.
- Participant - Citizens are able to influence the government in various ways and they are affected by it. The individual is oriented toward the system as a whole, to both the political and administrative structures and processes (to both the input and output aspects). In general congruent with a democratic political structure.
Almond and Verba wrote that these types of political culture can combine to create the civic culture, which mixes the best elements of each.
Arend Lijphart wrote that there are different classifications of political culture:
- 1. classification:
- Political culture of masses
- (Political culture of the elite(s)
- 2. classification (of political culture of the elites):
- coalitional
- contradictive
Lijphart also classified structure of the society:
- homogeneous
- heterogeneous
| Structure of society (right) | homogeneous | heterogeneous |
|---|---|---|
| Political culture of
elites (down) |
||
| coalitional | depoliticalised democracy | consociative democracy |
| contradictive | centripetal democracy | centrifugal democracy |
Read more about this topic: Political Culture
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