Читать книгу Political Science For Dummies - Marcus A. Stadelmann - Страница 63

In their study, Almond and Verba decided to personally interview 5,000 people in five countries. The most relevant questions concerning political culture were centered on these topics:

 Cognition: They asked people whether they were familiar with their national government, knew about officeholders, and most important, knew how they could participate in the political process. The results were that knowledge of government and participation were high in Great Britain, West Germany, and the U.S. At the same time, cognition was high in northern Italy and low in southern Italy. In Mexico, cognition was low at the national level; however, at the local level, Mexicans were keenly aware of their political structures.

 Feelings toward the system: Feelings of pride and support of the current form of government were very high in Great Britain and the U.S. In West Germany, people weren’t very proud of the structure of the system but supported it because it was efficient and delivered the goods. In Mexico, people were proud and supported their local system, but not their national political structure.

 Partisanship: In both the U.S. and Great Britain, partisanship was low. Political science usually measures partisanship in a society by asking the following question: “Would you allow your child to marry someone with a different partisan identification?” Although this wasn’t a problem in Great Britain and the U.S., parents not having much of a problem being a Democrat and their child marrying a Republican, it matters in the other three countries. In both West Germany and Italy, people expressed great partisanship by refusing to consider such a marriage. In Mexico, the question wasn’t relevant because Mexico at this time was a one-party state ruled by the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party).

 Civic obligation: The questions of civic obligation involved feeling an obligation to participate in politics by voting or participating in other ways. In both the U.S. and Great Britain, civic obligation was high, while in West Germany, people expressed an obligation to vote, but that was about it. In Italy and Mexico, feelings of civic obligation were low.

 Civic competence: Civic competence refers to the public believing that it has an obligation to join and participate in civic organizations such as charities and religious organizations or just volunteering and helping members of the community. The U.S. scored highest in this category, with Great Britain coming in second. In West Germany and Italy, civic competence was low, most people believing that it was the government’s obligation to help the needy. In Mexico, civic competence was high at the local level but almost nonexistent at the national level.

 Trust: This category refers to whether people trust the government to do what is right. While Americans and the British had a high level of trust in their government, West Germans and Italians did not. Mexicans, on the other hand, showed trust in the local government but not the national government.

Based on results from these questions, Almond and Verba categorized cultures in the five countries they studied and came up with not just one civic culture but three political cultures they found in each country. Furthermore, each country had a mix of the three cultures. See more on this in the next section.