Heywood Democracy Has Been Long Term Paper

Total Length: 801 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

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The subject culture implies the relationship of the individual with the political authorities he is aware of. However, despite their existence, the subject may or may not agree to their legitimacy.

The participant political culture is the "one in which the members of the society tend to be explicitly oriented to the system as a whole and to both the political and administrative structures and processes." (Almond and Verba,1989, 18)

Overall, the classification proposed by the authors does not necessarily exclude one another, but rather complement each other. In this sense, although participant politics is advisable for current democracies, elements from a parochial and a subject political culture are also present and influence the polity.

The U.S. is a symbol of the democratic system. The political culture may be seen as participant because the citizen is, despite a serious fall in the voting turnout percentages, involved in their relation with the authorities. He states his opinion and tries to influence the outcome of decisions taken at the political level. Thus, he may agree or disagree with the direction of the political system, yet he manifests his opinion in an active role, trying to challenge the decisions unfavorable to his interests.
In this sense, the lobby tradition or even the activist movements can be considered as being part of a participant attitude.

At the same time, however, there are individuals in the society which manifest a passive attitude towards politics, an element which is specific to a subject political culture. The citizens that choose not to exercise their right to vote, despite the fact that they have opinions related to the ongoing political process, are part of a subject political culture.

There cannot be a clear determination of the political culture present in the U.S. due to the fact that the society is diverse by its nature and historical background which has shaped the evolution of politics throughout the years. However, a specificity of the American society is the active role most of the citizens try to have in influencing, in order to support or change, the direction of political decisions. From this perspective, it can be concluded that in the U.S. The predominant political culture is the participant one, which various influences from the subject culture......

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/heywood-democracy-been-long-34690