Comparing Political Systems

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Comparing Political Systems Session 3 Political
Culture and the Social Basis of Politics
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• Levels and Objects of Political Culture
• - Community (Identity)
• System (Consent)
• Process (Role Models)
• Policy (Outcomes, Ideologies)
• Authorities (Performance, Confidence))

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• Legitimacy
• Traditional
• Charismatic
• Procedural

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• Role Models of a Citizen
• Parochial
• Subject
• Participant

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• Agents of Political Socialization
• Family
• School
• Peers
• Working and Living Environment
• Secondary Associations
• Mass Media

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• Trends of Political Cultural Change
• Secularization
• Rising Postmaterialism
• Democratization
• Marketization
• Individuation

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Social Cleavages
The group-basis of politics is structured along
social cleavages (Lipset Rokkan, 1967).
The process of modernization brought in its wake
Emerging Nation State Center-Periphery
Cleavage Reformation Religious-Secular
Cleavage Industrialization Rural-Urban
Cleavage Labor-Capital Cleavage
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The Group-Basis of Politics Model Party-Voter
Alignments
Occupational differentiation and other forms of
social stratification structure societies into
groups with conflicting interests workers want
taxes on capital but no taxes on labor
capitalists want taxes on labor but not on
capital peasants wants subsidies for their
products and so forth.
The natural addressees of conflicting interests
are state governments because they have the
power to make binding decisions in the interest
of social groups.
Political parties search for the support of
specific social groups by translating their
economic interests into policy programs.
Parties compete in elections with these programs
in order to take over governmental power.
Parties in government try to implement their
originally promised policies. Parties in
opposition criticize governmental parties on the
basis of their own programs.
Voters evaluate the performance of parties in
government and opposition and lend their support
to those most in line with their class interests.
There is a continuation of group-based
party-voter alignments. Democratic elections
translate group differences in society into
party competition.
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Possible Midterm-Exam Questions
Which evidence supports the party-voter
dealignment thesis?
Which factors impede party-voter realignment?
What is meant by the transformation of social
group cleavages into issue group cleavages?
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Changes Related to Emerging Postindustrial Society
Party-voter dealignment decreasing saliency of
class voting and denominational voting.
Two-dimensional cleavage-space Old Politics vs.
New Politics
What about the new middle class?
Ann Arbor Model of Voting Behavior - Party
identification (long-term) - Issue orientation
(short-term) - Candidate orientation (short-term)
Role of the Mass Media