Jedi Cristal M.

Bentillo AB Political Science II

Political Science 1 MWF 12:55-1:55 (S302)

UNDERSTANDING THE PHILIPPINE POLITICAL CULTURE

By Diana J. Mendoza
(A DETAILED OUTLINE)

I) PROLOGUE: WHAT IS POLITICAL CULTURE?

MENDOZAs essay aims to study the Philippine political culture. As cited in the first part of the selection, the study of political institutions (such as political parties, legislature, interest groups, bureaucracy, etc) and how these processes operate; only represent one-half of the equation. TO provide a full understanding of a societys political processes, the study of its Political Culture is necessary. Since the study of political culture has a significant effect on the societys choice of political institutions. WHAT IS POLITICAL CULTURE? This refers to the peoples attitudes and orientation to politics. Since the attitudes and values of the members of the society influence the social and political decision making. The Political culture conditions the behavior of individuals and CHOICE. This also refers to the set of shared attitudes, beliefs and values within the entire populations, as well as . . . . within separate parts of that population. A) HISTORY The term political culture first coined in the United States in the 1950s, since then had been defined in variety of ways. (1) Sidney Verba Defined political culture as the system of empirical beliefs, expressive symbols and values which defines the situation in which political action takes place. (2) Gabriel Almond & G. Bingham Powell They concentrated their work on the attitudes and orientations towards politics among the members of a given political system. Which led them to identify : 1. THREE CORE INDIVIDUAL-BASED ORIENTATIONS a. Cognitive Orientation It centers on knowledge and information, accurate or otherwise, of the political system, its roles and the incumbents of these roles, its processes, and performance.

b.

Affective Orientation

c.

This refers to the feelings with respect to the political systems institutions, roles, personnel, processes and performance. Evaluative Orientation This orientation embodies judgments and opinions about the political system, its processes, and outputs.

B) CONCLUSIVE REMARKS In its simplest forms, political culture refers to the set of values, attitudes, beliefs and orientations, which influences the publics perception of politics. (1) COMPONENTS OF POLITICAL CULTURE

1. ATTITUDES the psychological orientations toward political objects,

frequently involving normative conceptions of how things ought to be. ATTITUDES TOWARDS AUTHORITY i. Egalitarian Peoples attitudes are relatively equal in their capacity to assume political roles and to make political judgments. ii. Deferential Some people are more qualified to occupy leadership roles, but have obligations to rule in the general interest and should be held accountable for the results of their rule. iii. Authoritarian Some people are clearly more qualified to rule than others. The duty of the rest is unquestioned obedience.

2. BELIEFS the conceptions of how things are, which may or may not be
accurate. BELIEFS BEHIND POLITICAL DECISIONS: i. Ideologism A disposition to make political decisions based on their CONSISTENCY WITH A SET OF PRINCIPLES. ii. Pragmatism A TRIAL AND ERROR BASIS of teaching political decisions on the basis of results without regard to principles.

3. FEELINGS the EMOTIONAL attachment and reactions.

Emotions spurred by political observation and/ or participation. i. AFFECT A sense of belonging to the political system, that one has an interest in the well-being and success of the system, marked by a tendency to regard the system as us rather than them. ALIENATION A sense of detachment from the system, that the interests of the system are distinct from ones own interest, marked by a tendency regard the system as them.

ii.

4. COGNITION the knowledge and information. 5. VALUES

the priorities and goals (when framed in terms of particular object, values become attitudes) that may define the nature of the system (such as freedom or equality).

(2) SUBSTANTIAL CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN SPITE of the distinctive national pattern of attitudes and values identified within a nation, substantial variation among individuals may still exist. Furthermore, not only individuals vary, but as well as groups with distinctive political orientations may as well vary. In other words, any given political culture, usually HAVE a number of political subcultures. For instance, the Chinese and Muslim minority groups have been well accommodated and accepted as distinct political subcultures at present. IT IS WORTHY to note, that a nations political culture, is THE PRODUCT OF HISTORY and is transmitted across generations through social institutions such as the FAMILY.

II) POLITICAL CULTURE ~ Ideology ~ PUBLIC OPINION (A CONTRAST)

A) IDEOLOGY THIS refers to an explicit doctrinal structure, providing a particular diagnosis of the ills of society plus accompanying action program for implementing the prescribed solutions. i) CONTRAST BETWEEN POLITICAL CULTURE MEANWHILE, political culture refers to vaguer, more implicit orientations which may include MORE THAN ONE IDEOLOGY. As a CONCEPT, political culture is broader and more abstract in nature. It includes the peoples ideologies, but goes incorporate unexpressed attitudes that affect voting behavior and perceptions of how the political system works. IDEOLOGIES; along with Political attitudes; come and go, which can change with some frequency. Unlike political culture, is a broad and enduring pattern of behavior which defines the way people RELATE WITH EACH OTHER. B) PUBLIC OPINION THIS HELP reflect short-term outlook, often issue-specific in scope, and attitudes that may vary considerably within a society and change from week to week. i) CONTRAST BETWEEN POLITICAL CULTURE

ON THE OTHER HAND, political culture reflects a societys more deep-seated values and attitudes that are far more pervasive and change far more slowly than public opinion. Political Culture includes the society members underlying feelings towards politics & government, meanwhile, public opinion focuses on transient views about specific leaders, policies and issues.

III)

CLASSIFICATION OF POLITICAL CULTURES

A) DEMOCRATIC Political Cultures

FEATURE a willingness of its LEADERS to follow the will of the majority along with a widely-held respect for rights of minorities. In which, incorporates a widespread tolerance for DIVERSE OUTLOOKS, including unpopular or dissenting viewpoints.

B) AUTHORITARIAN Political Cultures

SUPPORT governmental systems in which decisions are made by a few for the whole people, and in which PUBLIC DISSENT in not tolerated. This kind of political culture REJECTS the DEMOCRATIC VALUE of tolerance for dissent.

i) TRADITIONAL TRAITS
The Philippine state contains more of a basis for democracy than for authoritarianism. Here are some traditional traits underpinning modern democracy:

(1)The CONSULTATIVE decision-making of the ancient BARANGAY;

(2) The PRAGMATIC BARGAINING of interpersonal relationships and; (3) The ABILITY to ACQUIRE POLITICAL STATUS through achievements ii) CONSTRAST (DEMOCRATIC-AUTHORITARIAN) DEMOCRATIC Cultures DEMOCRATIC political structures allow free expression & transmission of ideas. This OPENNESS provides opportunities for people to learn about politics and felt that participation is both possible and effective. AUTHORITARIAN Cultures This political culture LIMITS the diversity and amount of information that is transmittable. The peoples ability to learn about politics and the perception of being a viable member of the society is therefore HINDERED.

C) THE CIVIC CULTURE: THREE RELATION-BASED Types of POLITICAL CULTURE

(BY G. ALMOND & SIDEL VERBA) i) Parochial THIS relation-based type of political culture is dominated by people who are concerned almost entirely with LOCAL POLITICAL ISSUES. The term parochial (of a parish), pertains to the immediate locality. This type of political culture is described as: (1) People having LIMITED KNOWLEDGE about the national political system; (2) Have little or NO BELIEF that the people can INFLUENCE government decisions; (3) Express LITTLE APPRECIATION of how government policies affect their own lives;

(4) The members pays NO ATTENTION to politics and SELDOM SPEAK about political matters; (5) Usually found among people living in REMOTE RURAL REGIONS of underdeveloped countries(who lack the means to gain information about their larger society) ii) Subject This type of political culture is described as: (1)People found in the SLUMS OF MAJOR CITIES; (2)People are SOMEWHAT informed & aware of how government policies influence their own lives; (3)The level of the members political involvement still tends to be LOW; (4)The members feel POWERLESS to influence government policies even at the local level; (5) People often do not UNDERSTAND how to INFLUENCE policy makers. (6) This culture is most prevalent in moderately developed, SEMI-AUTHORITARIAN societies iii) Participant This type of political culture is described as: (1) People FEEL FREE to participate; (2) The People BELIEVES that their participation affects decision-making; (3) Have ENOUGH information available to make sense of at least some of the major political issues and; (4) Usually found among major Western democracies. According to Almong and Verba, all political systems contain some MIX OF INDIVIDUALS (parochial, subject, participant), but the proportion of the population belonging to each types varies considerably. Depending on: a. SOCIO-Economic levels; b. DEMOGRAPHIC factors and; c. The NATURE of the political system AS Governmental policies play an important role in encouraging or discouraging the participation in the society, what really matters is that the increase of a relatively- size participant culture, RISES the LEVELS OF EDUCATION and increasing URBANIZATION. D) THE PHILIPPINE POLITICAL CULTURE (A CLASSIFICATION) David Wurfel described the Philippines as having both parochial & subject political cultures. Meanwhile, Onfre D. Corpuz described the Filipino political culture that has a superstructure of attitudes and values of WESTERN origin, resting on a definitely indigenous infra-structure. FROM THE WEST comes INDIVIDUALISM and high respect for achievement and for the rule of law. (a) Public Opinion Surveys (1)Social Weather Station (SWS) (2) Ateneo Public Opinion Survey (3)Felipe Mirandas ANALYSIS OF FILIPINOS PUBLIC OPINION

IV) THE PHILIPPINE POLITICAL CULTURE

SCHOLARS have identified a number of political and non-political factors that shape and determine a societys political culture. And these are: (1) General CULTURE (2) Political Socialization (3) HISTORY (4) Sub-cultures A) FILIPINO VALUES & PRACTICES

i) Clifford Geertzs DEFINITION of Culture

~an historically transmitted pattern of meaning embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop with knowledge about and attitudes towards life. A WORLDVIEW perspective of CULTURE that explaining why and how individuals and groups BEHAVE AND DO. CULTURE also includes beliefs, customs, rituals, behaviors, expectations and motives that are internalized by subject individuals and widely shared by the people. IN THE PHILIPPINE CONTEXT, these are some FILIPINO VALUES: (a) Pakikisama- SMOOTH INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP (b) Utang na Loob- DEBT OF GRATITUDE (c) Personalism (d) Particularism FILIPINO PRACTICES: (a) Patron-Client Relations This NETWORK, is usually based on patrons wealth and then on his access to the resources of the state (b) Dualism: Cacique Relationship (c) Cultural Analysis (1) Howard Ross (2) Napoleon Chagron (3) Edward Banfield Amoral Familism (4) Alfred McCoy 1. Political Alliances/Dynasties 2. Kamag-anak (Clan) Primacy 3. Family Primacy (5) Frank Golay Primacy of Kinship ties (6) Carl Lande Patron-client Relationship: Favoritism & Nepotism (7) Abner Cohen Political uses of Culture Marcos Regime: Religious Institutions Political Mobilization B) POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION i) DEFINITION (a) A LEARNING PROCESS (b) STAGES

(c) AGENTS ARTICULATION (a) INDOCTRINATION (b) Educational System (c) Political Participation iii) HISTORY ~ POLITICAL CULTURE RELATIONSHIP (a) Mehran Kamrava (b) Lucian Pye iv) PHILIPPINE HISTORY (a) Jamie Mackie & Bernardo Villegas (b) Alfredo & Grace Roces (c) Onofre Corpuzs argument (1) Marcos Martial Law C) POLITICAL SUBCULTURES i) CHINESE POLITICAL SUBCULTURE ii) MUSLIM POLITICAL SUBCULTURE ii)

IV)CONCLUSION