Goal – to understand how people develop their political propensities – How is political culture developed?To understand the concept of development and modernizationTo understand the US political system and to be able to use the ST framework

1.Quia quiz – take between now and Wednesday – see apcg wiki

2.Discuss Wildavsky’s framework of 4 cultural pathways. Which category best describes the US polity?3.How did Brooks use the cultural theory?

1. Make specific connections to Wildavsky specific cultures

4.Discuss development and modernization – Read Political Development sheet.

1. define – characteristics and causes and results – biases in definition

5.Analyze the US – each group will read a section about the US from Kesselman and use that information to complete the ST chart.1 – pp 93-100 2 – pp 101-106 3 – 107-1144 – 115-123 5 – 124-132 6 – 135-139

AP Comp Day 14

Get Econ Reading?

Political Culture QuestionsPolitical Culture Questions

• How does political culture develop?• How do people choose their political

cultural propensities?

• How does political culture develop?Culture is defined as the shared values legitimating social practices.

People have relations they justify by rationalizing relative to values, and all values exist to rationalize behavior

Thus culture (way of life) develops as a result of people rationalizing their social behaviors consistent with shared values – further reinforcing those values in practice if they support their way of life and changing those values that do not support their way of life.

Political preferences are built into the political system based on making choices about supporting or rejecting institutions/authority relative to how much they advance the culture – I am for this or against this based on if it is consistent with my shared values and rationalized behaviors.

Culture is also determined by conflict with other cultures. My culture is X because it is not Y.

•How do people choose their political propensities?

People choose their preferences by answering two questions: Who am I? and what should I do? and by evaluating if their active choices have furthered their way of life. As they make more choices and evaluations, they further know what they will want in the future.

• How do people choose their political propensities?Who am I? – part of a group or an individualWhat shall I do? – follow a set of strict rules or have very few

rules to followOnce these questions are answered, we can determine one of

four main cultures: Fatalistic, Hierarchic, Egalitarian, Individualistic

Fatalists –people cannot control their own lives as less connected indies because the rules are imposed, thus no preferences what will be will be

Hierarchist – strong bonds put the group over the indie, justifying strict rules and inequality b/c it is more effective for supporting the group

Individualist – self-regulated competition and cooperation amongst adults seeking opportunities to be different

Egalitarian – voluntary strong association with a group, the group works because everyone is equal and is willing to work together as equals

Follow a bunch of

rules.

What shall I

do?

Follow few rules

Who am I ?An individual w/ weak group connections

A member of a group with strong group connections

Social cleavages etcSocial cleavages etc..

people identify themselves as part of a group based on self-selected traits, characteristics and factors

When one “group” has a conflict with another, it is a social cleavage

These can be cross-cutting cleavages, like gender or religion in the US. This means that, regardless of other group identification, this one group trait leads to conflict across other group traits. Gender for example, regardless if people are poor, black, Jewish, urban, or immigrant, gender plays a significant role in social and political conflict.

Other cleavages are cumulative. This means that conflict grows more intense as more and more cleavages are added together.

•For example, in Northern Ireland, religion, region and wealth all go together. Catholics are political weaker, their regions where they live poorer and their families poorer.

•In the US, race, urbanization, poverty, gender all go together to further exacerbate each of the other cleavages such that black, urban, women are more likely to be poorer than almost anyone else in the US

Political developmentPolitical developmentPalmer – “Based on United Nations definition – achievement of stable

democracy that promotes well-being of its citizens in equitable, humane and environmentally concerned way”

1. Full range of human needs – government must do more than rule – it needs to promote the economic and social well-being of its citizens – access to education, healthcare, housing, employment and a “reasonable distribution of wealth”1. Sometimes focus on national economic growth is mistaken for

improved quality of life2. Uniform standard for comparing states with a stable criteria3. Raises questions about relations between policies and cultural and

economic context – politics affects and is affected by environment conditions and this definition allows us to ask questions about stability w/o democracy, etc.

4. This definition is normative however and is biased in favor of western standards with the state as the central actor – but states are losing their monopoly

5. Definition of development, as a process, inevitably leads to the conclusion that a world government is the goal – but this may not at all be beneficial if one uses the historical cultural method of analysis