Political Culture is the set of ideas of the people towards the political system of a state. Whereas Public Opinion is the aggregate of the attitudes and beliefs of a significant proportion of a community towards a particular topic. In simple, former is broader, long-term and deep rooted, whereas later is limited, short-term and temporary.
Political culture is the ideas of citizens regarding the political system not towards a specific political party, group, institute etc.
Gabriel Almond and Sydney Verba in their book “The Civic Culture - 1963" wrote three types of political culture;
Parochial Political Culture: In this political culture, due to unawareness, citizens are not interested in government and nor they take part in political activities. Some regions of Africa and Asia are examples of this political culture.
Subject Political Culture: Citizens are well aware of the political activities, but are not allowed to participate in political activities. Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China, etc.
Participant Political Culture: Here, citizens are aware of political system and interested in political activities. They participate in government affairs by political recruitment and handle state affairs by making decision in legislative process, implement laws through public administration and adjudicate through judicial department. This is the democratic system.
If the ideas and beliefs of citizens/population regarding the political system of a state are positive and they have trust in their state’s political system, it means the political system is strong. On the other hand, if the ideas of a population are negative regarding the political system of a state, it is the prove of the weaken political system of that state. That’s why this is a best tool to judge the strength of a political system, whether, it is strong or weak?
Here are six important Factors/Characteristics of a Political Culture:
- History (Revolution, invasions, etc.)
- Political Continuity/Discontinuity (Overthrow, Coup D’état, etc.)
- Geography (Geostrategic Location)
- Socioeconomic Factors (Urban development, Science & Technology, Education, etc.)
- Ethnic Factor (Inter-Provincial harmony, Separatist groups, etc.)
- Ideological Factor (i.e. Two Nation Theory)
Political Culture is very important to understand the political views and ideas of citizens toward the political system of a state. Political Culture is a tool to judge the public opinion and to make future policies to decrease the problems and confusions of the public. Political Culture is very deep rooted which is hard to change. In Afghanistan, American government tried their best to introduce liberal democratic system, but failed due to the political culture of the Afghanistan. As the population of the Afghanistan was not trained according to the liberal provisions of the democratic system due to their long traditional history. Hence, Political Culture of a state chooses, which political system is suitable for it.