Political culture: concept, functions, types. Typology of political culture Types of political culture briefly

How important is the behavior of a person at a certain point in time, and how he will act - it depends on many things, and in particular What types of political culture are views in society and each individual separately. About what politics is and what culture is, how they can organically combine, and how they influence decision-making in different situations? On many issues of the development of life in a traditional society further.

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Numerous state structures, features of the development of the country and the definition of management opportunities within it, form the mentality that is inherent in a particular people.

A variety of experts in the field of studying all spheres of human life argued about what political culture is. What political culture exists in the traditional structure of society?

First of all, this concept means a harmonious complex, which includes ideas, relationships between people, the results of active influence on natural processes. Any of the components public life are so tightly connected with each other and their fragments that in each of the social systems there is one or another clearly formed concept of the behavior of the masses. Separate legal elements are:

• institutions in their entirety;
• A complex of interrelationships of customs and traditions;
• Ideas, a system of beliefs and views on certain processes;
• Functional connections in society between people and nationalities.

Important! Particular attention in every developed civilization is paid to the intrastate structure, which is one of the components and signs of a developed community and a perfect state system as a whole.

The concept of the political structure of the state

Under the term culture of the domestic political system, it is customary to consider a structure consisting of various factors:

1. Established in natural historical conditions, relatively stable political knowledge;
2. Objective and subjective assessments of reality and behavior patterns that are stable under certain conditions, most often these are authoritarian political culture;
3. Moral values, traditions and norms that have developed over a long period of time, which allow regulating relationships in society.

If we talk about integrated political culture, as the most important evaluation criterion for the development of society, it is the most qualitative indicator of the development of trends in policy within the state.

The general concept is a coherent system, which includes formed ideological beliefs, examples of the collective life of individual subjects and their communities, models of action of various power institutions that ensure the country's security. This type of political culture is typical for many countries.

Political scientists pay great attention to the level of political culture and accept it as the main criterion of life, the main indicator of the state's striving for democratic civilized relations. In terms of studying it as a mechanism of relationships, both within society and at the international level, attention should be paid to such a factor as the formation of stable views and beliefs. They are formed by ideas and concepts based on life experience regarding various aspects of political life:

• National state values, characterized by the attitude of members of society to the symbols of the state. The presence of a flag, anthem, state emblem, party, and other organizations are of great importance in shaping the worldview of the people.
• Political systems, their institutions.
• The device of the state concept.
• Mechanisms of activity and systems of work of authorities.
• Personal characteristics of the bearers of power, their commitment to the social system.

Important! Belief, idea and their concept is one of the fundamental, basic moments in the formation of state policy. Nothing can strengthen and raise the level of worldview so much as the strength and validity of the beliefs of each individual individual.

Types

The formation of political culture took place throughout the history of mankind, its development and evolution took place in each of the historical eras, starting from ancient times. Each type has its own kind. To date, the following systematization has been adopted:

1. It belongs to the most ancient type. This type is characterized by a low level of competence in making decisions on domestic and foreign policy issues. Ordinary citizens are not interested in participating in such events; basically, all events are focused on the values ​​of the local order, such as the community, clan, tribe. The patriarchal type of political culture stands out the fact that the main leaders, according to the members of society, people are leaders, shamans, leaders of warriors. It is characteristic of some modern tribes.
2. A more developed type, focused on the interests and aspirations of the state with a low activity of individuals, is. The civil position consists in non-resistance to the rule of monarchs, politicians, officials, impostors and adventurers who easily manipulate the almost amorphous mass of the population. People are not interested in getting more information, general concepts are already present in society, but the possibility of influencing the authorities in any way is not even implied.
3. Most functional type– . Citizens actively participate in all processes, in the elections of government bodies and seek to influence the development and adoption of projects and decisions by their will. The population shows considerable interest in political events, a fairly large amount of information about the structural structure and functioning of the system.

The desire for self-realization using legislative framework and rights and freedoms prescribed by the Constitution in the sphere of politics. Activist type of political culture is common in developed countries Western Europe, Canada.

Each citizen can freely realize his ambitions, such a situation is considered as one of the most effective levers for the development of society.

Usually, defining a pure type in a real state presents considerable difficulties. If a society is closed, clearly regulated, where publicity is completely absent, it is almost impossible to determine the species affiliation. Such a situation exists for domestic political culture, it is characteristic was for Soviet Union. Soviet ideologists have been talking about a high level of development for decades.

And only at the end of the last century, when the totalitarian system fell and was replaced by democratic principles and publicity, it became known about the low development of the state and society.

Attention! Despite many years of idealization of the Marxist-Leninist principle of building society as the most advanced type, the citizens of the USSR were not unanimous in their views. At the end of the 20th century, the population of the Russian Federation was significantly divided in its views.

Types of political culture, table:

Character traits

Beliefs, attitudes and behavioral type form a complex of characteristic features and signs, consisting of the following:

1. Consolidation and fixation of connections between participants and elements of processes, stable aspects of the acquired experience.
2. This is the result of the natural historical development of a certain state over a long period of time. Refers to statist political culture where the experience of previous systems is applied.
3. Differs in total comprehensive character in all spheres of political relations.
4. Forms self-consciousness and social behavior of the majority of the country's inhabitants.
5. Ensuring the integrity of the sphere of politics and the coordination of political methods of the life of society in a global sense, a harmonious combination of the interests of social groups, classes, the state, individuals with different beliefs.
6. Creation of certain behavioral patterns, norms of an organic relationship between power structures and the population.

In order to concretize the forms, it is necessary to consider its main structural elements. First of all, this is self-consciousness, consisting of their ideological components - knowledge, values, beliefs, ways of thinking and psychological factors in the form of political feelings, emotions, experiences, guidelines, moods. A complex of political attitudes, types, forms, styles, and activities shapes behavior in this area.

The main ones for gaining experience are political and state foundations and traditions, customs, historical public memory. In any current society, the device is a complex system formed by various subcultures. Based on the dominant form, the political system and the power regime are determined.

Types of political culture

Fundamentals of culture and politics

The political culture of any state is formed under the influence of numerous, diverse factors, which gives rise to various types of political cultures. Types of political culture fix the predominance in the style of political behavior of citizens of certain values ​​and standards, forms of relations with the authorities, formed under the influence of geographical, spiritual, economic and other factors. In other words, the type of political culture expresses the most common features of the behavior and political thinking of people living at a certain moment in history and having similar reactions to political events.

The typology of political cultures in political science is carried out according to certain criteria. The specifics and features of various political systems, countries and regions, types of orientation of citizens in political relations, openness or closeness of political values, ideological differences, etc. can be used as such criteria.

In modern political science, the typology of political cultures formulated by G. Almond and S. Verba in the work “Civil Culture. Political Relations and Democracy in Five States” (1963), created as a result of a study of five democracies that differ in their historical experience (England, Italy, Germany, the USA and Mexico). Within the framework of this typology, three “pure” types were identified political culture.

Patriarchal("parochial"), characterized by people's lack of interest in political institutions, in the central government. The political interests of people are limited to the framework of their local community; orientation to local values, local patriotism, and nepotism dominate here. Such a culture is characteristic of peoples at the stage of a tribal system or of young independent states.

tributary- characterized by a strong orientation of citizens to the activities of the authorities, the existing political system, but weak participation in political life. Citizens expect decisions from the authorities, but are not oriented towards participation, towards the desire to influence decision-making.

participatory(from English, participation- participation; activist, civil) - characterized by the active participation of citizens in the political life of society. Citizens seek to actively influence the government through legal means (elections, demonstrations, etc.).

Offering their typology, the authors noted that in practice these types of political culture interact with each other, forming mixed forms with a predominance of certain components. Thus, in real political life there are patriarchal-subordinate, subservient-activist and patriarchal-activist types of political culture. Moreover, the most massive and at the same time optimal, from the point of view of ensuring the stability of political power, is the synthetic culture of "citizenship", in which subservient attitudes and the corresponding forms of people's participation in politics prevail. This type includes the following qualities: a general positive assessment of the government's activities; a sense of pride in the political institutions of one's nation; the expectation that the citizen will be given attention by officials; willingness to discuss policy issues publicly; open and loyal manifestation of opposition sentiments; competence in the use of legal norms in order to counter arbitrariness; belief that democracy is a necessary system of government. Thus, the culture of citizenship is basically an activist culture that has absorbed elements of a subservient culture. Its main features are pluralism, consensus and diversity.

Another variant of the typology of political culture is its division into Western and Eastern types. The values ​​of the political culture of the Western type date back to the polis organization of power in Ancient Greece, which assumed the obligatory participation of citizens in solving common issues, as well as to Roman law, which approved the civil sovereignty of the individual. In general, the values ​​and standards of Western political culture were formed on the basis of a consistent increase in the role and importance of the individual in the political life of society, the establishment of civil society control over the state. It should also be noted the enormous influence of Christianity, especially its Protestant and Catholic branches. One of the classics of world political science, R. Dahl, characterizing the new model of the democratic political process, called the possibility of control over government decisions as the main elements; elections in which virtually the entire adult population participates; access to alternative sources of information; the opportunity to join independent associations, including political ones. Therefore, the mass consciousness of Westerners is characterized by values ​​that determine social significance: the right to own property, individual freedom, freedom of thought and belief, the right to justice, the right to participate in the exercise of political power, welfare and security.

The eastern type of political culture is based on the peculiarities of the life of the communal structures of the agrarian Asian society, which were formed under the influence of the values ​​of the Arab-Muslim, Confucian and Indo-Buddhist cultures. The basic values ​​of this type were formed with the constant dominance of ruling structures in the life of society, the dominance of collectivist forms of organizing private life, and the suppression by power structures of the conditions for individual life. The resolution of conflicts in Eastern cultures did not involve the promotion of legal norms, but an appeal to the moral authority of senior leaders. Therefore, the ethical dominant of the political culture of the Eastern type was not the law, but the custom, not the constitution, but the opinion of the leadership. Hence, the most essential features of the political culture of the countries of the East are: confidence in divine origin authorities; attitude to politics as to the activity of people chosen by God, i.e. subject to the principles of divine government; denial of the randomness of political events; attraction to an authoritarian type of government, the search for a charismatic leader.

Various variants of the typology of political culture do not exclude the obvious fact that political culture of any type cannot be absolutely homogeneous. Practically in each of them there are political subcultures.

Subculture- this is a set of political orientations of citizens of certain regions, various social words and other subjects of political relations that differ from those dominant in society as a whole. Based on this, the following subcultures are distinguished in political science.

• 1.Regional, due to differences between regions. Geographical, climatic and socio-economic differences between regions affect the lifestyle of people and their culture. For example, it has been scientifically established that the agrarian regions of Russia are politically more conservative than the industrial ones, and show a low level of political activity, limited only to participation in elections.
• 2. Socio-economic subcultures, due to the existence in society of different classes and strata with differences in lifestyle, interests, playing a particularly important political role.
• 3.Sex and age subcultures reflect different political values ​​among representatives of different sexes and generations. The older generations, whose political culture has developed under the conditions of the Soviet political system, have views that are different from the political attitudes of today's youth.

The political culture of each individual country usually formed in the process of interaction and combination of various value orientations and ways of political participation of citizens, national traditions, dominant forms of communication between the elite and the main part of the population, as well as other circumstances that express stable features of the development of society and the state. In this regard, the basic values ​​of Russian political culture have developed under the influence of a number of factors that have not lost their influence at the present time.

Russia occupies a middle position between East and West. At first it was the influence of Byzantine traditions, expressed in the dominance of collective forms of social life, the absence of traditions of legal statehood and the weak influence of the mechanisms of self-government and self-organization of the population. In the 20th century, the totalitarian regime led to the formation of the political consciousness of the population under the powerful influence of the state.

Russia passed difficult stages cultural and state development: pagan, Kievan Rus, Moscow kingdom, Russian empire, Soviet period and the current, post-communist period. In fact, the formation of stable political traditions and norms at each stage began anew. Many authors note that modern Russian political culture is extremely fragmented and unstable. Her hallmarks are political loyalty, servile attitude to the state, political naivety, a tendency to political radicalism, political extremes, limited personal claims to power, legal nihilism. It should also be noted that the structure of the psychological orientations of the main groups of the Russian electorate is changing extremely slowly.

Throughout the development of various states and peoples, many types of political culture have been developed that express the predominance in the style of political behavior of citizens of certain values ​​and standards, forms of relations with the authorities, as well as other elements that have developed under the dominant influence of geographical, spiritual, economic and other factors.

The typology of political cultures can be based on rather mundane factors that reflect, for example, the specifics of various political systems (X. Eckstein), countries and regions (G. Almond, S. Verba), types of orientation of citizens in the political game (in particular, moralistic , individual or traditional - D. Elazar), openness (discursiveness) or closeness of political values ​​to foreign cultural contacts (R. Schwarzenberg), internal integrity of cultural components (D. Kavanagh), ideological differences (E. Vyatr), etc.

The classification of political culture proposed by G. Almond and S. Verba in the book "Civil Culture" (New York, 1963) has gained particular fame in science. Analyzing and comparing the main components and forms of functioning of the political systems of England, Italy, Germany, the USA and Mexico, they identified three "pure" types of political culture: parochial(parochial, "parochial", patriarchal), which is characterized by a lack of citizens' interest in political life, knowledge about the political system and significant expectations for people from its activities; tributary with a strong orientation towards political institutions and a low level of individual activity of citizens; participatory(from English, participation - participation), indicating the interest of citizens in political participation and the manifestation of such activity by them. The authors emphasized that in practice these types of political culture interact with each other, forming mixed forms with a predominance of certain components. Moreover, the most massive and at the same time optimal, from the point of view of ensuring the stability of the political regime, is the synthetic culture of "citizenship", in which subservient attitudes and the corresponding forms of people's participation in politics predominate.

Considering the varying degree of assimilation by citizens of various values, norms, and standards characteristic of different countries, in science allocate consensual and polarized types of political culture. In the political culture of the consensual type, there is a very high cohesion of the population on the basis of relatively leading values, goals that the state and society face. Therefore, here, as a rule, the loyalty of citizens to the ruling circles and the goals of the regime is also high.

In a polarized political culture, the subcultures that have developed in society are distinguished by a sharp discrepancy between the basic values ​​and guidelines for the political activity of the population (a gap in horizontal subcultures), the elite and the electorate (a gap in vertical subcultures). In countries with a fragmented political culture, the population most often lacks strong agreement on the goals of community development, the main methods of reforming the country, models of the future.

The degree and depth of mutual misunderstanding usually do not coincide, therefore, within the framework of this type of political culture, peculiar subtypes are also distinguished. For example, you can talk about fragmented(segmented) political cultures, in which, in contrast to the relations within a polarized political culture, there is a certain social consensus about the most basic - national - values. At the same time, as V. Rosenbaum emphasizes (and as noted earlier), here local loyalty often prevails over national loyalty, the effectiveness of legal, legitimate procedures is weak, acute distrust of social groups in each other is widespread, and therefore the governments that come to power are unstable and short-lived.

The presence of segmented political cultures is quite typical for transitional societies or those in which the formation of a titular nation is underway. Under these conditions, there is a large proportion of apathetic and alienated from the authorities sections of the population, and sharp political discussions are being held regarding the goals and methods of social transformations.

Given the special role of the state and other political institutions in the reproduction of patterns of political thinking and behavior, science also distinguishes official supported by state institutions, and real a political culture that embodies the values ​​and corresponding forms of practical behavior of the majority or a significant part of the population. Thus, in a number of countries of Eastern Europe, where the ideas of socialism were largely introduced under pressure from the state, at the very first democratic transformations (“velvet revolutions”) they gave way to official indicators of the adherence of these countries to Marxism-Leninism to the real guidelines and values ​​of citizens.

At the same time, types of political culture can also be defined on more general grounds that can reveal the most universal features of various styles of political behavior of citizens in various countries. For example, you can talk about market political culture, in which politics is understood by people as a kind of business and is seen as an act of free exchange of citizens' activities, and statist, which is characterized by the dominant role of state institutions in organizing political life and determining the conditions for the political participation of the individual (E. Batalov).

Ideals of political culture western types date back to the polis (city) organization of power in Ancient Greece, which assumed the obligatory participation of citizens in solving common issues, as well as to Roman law, which approved the civil sovereignty of the individual. In general, the values ​​and standards of Western political culture were formed as and on the basis of a consistent increase in the role and importance of the individual in the political life of society, the establishment of civil society control over the state. The content of these values ​​and standards was greatly influenced by the religious values ​​of Christianity, primarily its Protestant and Catholic branches, as well as the special role of philosophy, which acted as an autonomous spiritual force and embodied a critical attitude both to social reality and to the religious picture of the world.

The economic foundation of the Western way of life, in the bosom of which the main ideas, institutions and relations of political life were formed, was the industrial type of production relations, which, combined with the spiritual influence of Catholicism, and especially Protestantism, approved the most important principles of social and political interaction. For a person of the Greco-Roman civilization, the basic principle of his attitude to reality was the attitude to work as a guarantee of prosperity in life. A rational attitude to life, the ideas of competitiveness, the desire for progress: “work and succeed”, “compete and become famous” - these are the ethical maxims that dominated relations between the state and society, drove the development of Western civilization, forced the West to constantly make breakthroughs in the development of production led to a steady increase in the well-being of its population.

Due to this type of civilizational development, the main values ​​and guidelines of the political culture of the West primarily reflected the understanding of human self-sufficiency for the exercise of power and the attitude towards politics as a kind of conflict, but quite rationally organized activity in which people perform various roles and functions. The state was perceived as an institution protecting the rights and freedoms of a person, supporting his social initiatives. At the same time, there were no value restrictions that closed the possibilities for the ordinary person to perform managerial functions. The status of the most important regulator of the political game was established by law and law. Orientation to the supremacy of laws and the constitution formed the predominance of consensus technologies of ruling, the centrist type of state policy.

Such a value motivation of political actions of the elite and non-elite strata led to the development of a democratic form of organization of power, entrenched in the separation of powers, the creation of a system of checks and balances aimed at systematic public control over the ruling circles. At present, stable democratic traditions allow Western countries to flexibly adapt to many changes in the world, resolve conflicts in the spirit of integrity and integration of their communities.

The specifics Eastern The norms and traditions of political culture are rooted in the peculiarities of the life of the communal structures of the agrarian Asian society, which were formed under the influence of the values ​​of the Arab-Muslim, Confucian and Indo-Buddhist cultures. The basic values ​​of this world were formed with the constant dominance of ruling structures in the life of society, the dominance of collectivist forms of organizing private life, the suppression by centralized structures of the conditions for individual entrepreneurial activity, the emergence and development of private property. The undivided dominance of religious ideas, which embodied not only sacred ideas, but also morality, law, aesthetics, social teachings, led to the fact that religious doctrines practically absorbed the critical function of secular philosophical science in these countries.

The resolution of conflicts in such conditions did not involve the promotion of legal norms, but an appeal to the moral authority of senior leaders. Therefore, the ethical maxim of the political culture of the Eastern type was not a law, but a custom, not a constitution, but the opinion of the leadership. In general, the long domination of the patriarchal-clan structure of society has led to the extreme weakness of the individual in the face of the community and especially the state. The status of a person was determined by his usefulness for a particular community, and therefore power, politics have always been perceived as the sphere of activity of heroes and surrendering persons.

Such conditions contributed to the rooting as a basic value of this type of political culture of the belief in the need for an obligatory intermediary between the ordinary person and the authorities (guru, teacher, elder). Man viewed political power as the realm of divine rule. Competitiveness, pluralism, freedom were excluded from the attributes of this area of ​​life, and the recognition of the leading role of elites was supplemented by the absence of the need to control its activities. Performing functions, maintaining the ideas of justice, order, harmony of the top and bottom were recognized as the main destiny of a person. It is not surprising that such norms constantly gave rise to tendencies towards isolation of the upper and lower classes, authoritarian tendencies, and simplification of the forms of organization of power and political relations.

The opposition between the basic orientations of the Western and Eastern types has an extremely stable character, which cannot be shaken even by serious political reforms. For example, in India, where the country inherited from the colonial rule of Great Britain a fairly developed party system, parliamentary institutions, etc., the archetypes of the Eastern mentality still dominate. And therefore, the main role in the elections is played not by party programs, but by the opinions of village elders, princes (heads of aristocratic families), leaders of religious communities, etc. In turn, in a number of Western European countries, even an increased interest in Eastern religions and ways of life also does not affect the parameters of political culture, does not lead to a change in it. True, in some states, a certain synthesis values ​​of Western and Eastern types. For example, Japan's technological breakthrough into the club of leading industrial powers, as well as the political consequences of the post-war occupation of this country, made it possible to strengthen in its political culture a significant charge of liberal democratic values ​​and patterns of political behavior of citizens. A very intensive interaction between the West and the East is also taking place in the political life of countries occupying middle geopolitical position (Russia, Kazakhstan, etc.), where a certain symbiosis of value orientations and ways of political participation of citizens is formed. But still quality features of these world civilizations, as a rule, determine the mutually non-transformable foundations of political cultures, the rapprochement of which will obviously take place in the distant future.

The political culture of a particular country is usually formed in the process of interweaving different value orientations and ways of political participation of citizens, national traditions, customs, ways of social recognition of a person, dominant forms of communication between the elite and the electorate, as well as other circumstances that express the stable features of the civilizational development of society and the state.

The basic values ​​of Russian political culture have developed under the influence of the most powerful factors that have not lost their influence even today. First of all, they include geopolitical reasons, expressed, in particular, in the features of its forest-steppe landscape, the presence of a sharply continental climate in most of the territory, in large sizes territories developed by man, etc. Influencing the lives of many, many generations, these factors (reasons) have determined for significant, mainly rural, sections of the population the main rhythm of life, attitudes and attitudes towards life. For example, the winter-summer cycles contributed to the combination in a Russian person of degree, Oblomov's contemplation and long-suffering (caused by prolonged passivity in winter period) with increased activity and even explosive character (derived from the need to do a lot in a short summer).

The dominant features of Russian political culture were also influenced by general civilizational factors that reflected the most revealing forms of organizing the joint life of Russians, their basic values ​​and guidelines. For example, they include the sociocultural middle ground between the areas of East and West; constant orientation of the state to emergency management methods; the powerful influence of Byzantine traditions, expressed, for example, in the dominance of collective forms of social life; the lack of traditions of legal statehood and the low role of the mechanisms of self-government and self-organization of the population, etc. In the XX century. the destruction by totalitarian regimes of entire social strata (merchants, humanitarian intelligentsia, officers) and nationalities, the rejection of market regulators of economic development, the forced introduction of communist ideology significantly transformed many trends in the development of Russian civilization, violated the natural mechanisms for the reproduction of Russian traditions, broke the continuity of generations and the development of values pluralistic way of life, deformed intercultural ties and relations between Russia and the world community.

The long-term and contradictory influence of various factors has now led to the formation of the political culture of Russian society, which can be characterized as internally split, horizontally and vertically polarized a culture where its leading segments contradict each other in their basic and secondary orientations. The main segments of the population gravitate towards more to the cultural programmatics of either rational or traditionalist subcultures, based on the basic Values ​​of the Western and Eastern type. In many ways, these subcultures, unequal in scale and influence, are also permeated with various ideological positions and approaches.

The dominant traditionalist subculture of Russian society is based on the values ​​of communitarianism (rising back to communal collectivism and determining not only the priority of group justice over the principles of individual freedom of the individual, but also, ultimately, the leading role of the state in regulating political and social life), as well as a personalized perception of power. , constantly provoking the search for a "savior of the fatherland", capable of leading the country out of the crisis. The leading political idea is also "social justice", which determines predominantly moralizing assessments of intergroup political competition. Characteristic of such cultural orientations is also a misunderstanding of the role of representative bodies of power, an attraction to executive functions with limited individual responsibility, a lack of interest in systematic control over the authorities, a denial of the meaning of codified legality and a preference for one's own, "Kaluga" and "Ryazan legality" (Lenin). This type of political culture is also distinguished by a tendency to unsanctioned forms of political protest, a predisposition to forceful methods of resolving conflict situations, and a low interest of citizens in using consensus technologies of power.

In contrast to these guidelines, among representatives of more rationalized and liberally oriented values, the system of cultural norms and beliefs includes many of the same standards that are characteristic of Western-type political culture. However, most of these values ​​are not yet firmly rooted in their minds and have a somewhat bookish, speculative character.

As already noted, almost all political cultures of a country are combination various subcultures. For example, even in a fairly integrated American political culture, D. Elazar identifies individualistic, moralistic and traditionalist subcultures. Two very different political cultures have developed in contemporary China (PRC and Hong Kong). However, in Russian society the level of differences and confrontation between subcultures is extremely high. If, for example, the traditionalists mythologize the uniqueness of Russia, then the democrats - its lagging behind, the former criticize Western liberalism, the latter - inert Russian reality. At the same time, both of them are distinguished by an unshakable confidence in the correctness of “their” principles (customs, traditions, leaders, etc.), an attitude towards compromise with opponents as an unacceptable violation of principles and even betrayal.

In fact, this form of mutual opposition of political subcultures is a modern version of that cultural split, which took shape in our society back in the years of the baptism of Rus' and leads its way through the confrontation between supporters of paganism and Christianity, adherents of catholicity and authoritarianism, Slavophiles and Westernizers, whites and reds, democrats and communists. Because of this, mutually opposing subcultures do not make it possible to develop common values ​​of the political structure of Russia, combine its cultural diversity with political unity, and ensure the internal integrity of the state and society.

As the experience of the development of Russian society shows, its cultural self-identification is possible on the way to overcome the split and ensure an organic synthesis of the civilizational originality of the country's development and world tendencies towards the democratization of societies and the expansion of foreign cultural contacts between them. The political and cultural qualities of Russian society can be transformed in this direction, first of all, by a real change in the civil status of the individual, the creation of power mechanisms that transfer power in decision-making to legally elected and reliably controlled representatives of the people.

Our society needs not the suppression of previously dominant ideologies and not the invention of new “democratic” doctrines, but the consistent strengthening of spiritual freedom, a real expansion of the socio-economic and political space for the manifestation of civic activity of people, their involvement in the redistribution of public material resources, control over managers. The policy of the authorities should ensure the peaceful coexistence of even opposite ideologies and styles of civic behavior, contributing to the formation of political orientations that unite, rather than oppose, the positions of socialists and liberals, conservatives and democrats, but at the same time radically limiting the ideological influence of political extremists. Only on such a basis can mass ideals of civic dignity, self-respect, and democratic forms of interaction between man and government be formed in society.

In political science, there are numerous typologies of political culture. The first in-depth study of the types of political culture was carried out by G. Almond and S. Verba.

From 1958 to 1962 they undertook a wide-ranging comparative study of the political cultures of Great Britain, West Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. In the course of this study, they were interested in "patterns of political orientations regarding political objects among the members of nations." The results obtained during the study and the concept formulated on their basis were presented in the work "Civil Culture". It distinguished three types of political culture: patriarchal, subservient, and activist.

The patriarchal type (“parochial”, “communal”, “provincial”, “parochial” cultures) is characterized by the orientation of citizens towards local values ​​- the community, clan, clan, village, tribe, etc. Thus, an individual with a patriarchal culture is oriented on specific individuals - leaders, shamans. Community members have no knowledge about the political system, political orientations are not separated from economic and religious ones. Therefore, individuals with a patriarchal culture have no expectations associated with the political system itself.

The tributary type of culture is characterized by a passive attitude of citizens to the political system. Here the individual is already focused on the political system, associates his expectations with it, but at the same time fears sanctions from her side. Ideas about the possibilities of influencing the development process

there are no solutions, the individual does not consider himself as the creator of the political process.

The activist type, or the political culture of participation, is characterized by the active inclusion of individuals in political life. Citizens skillfully articulate their interests and through elections, interest groups, parties influence the policy making process. At the same time, they demonstrate loyalty to the political system, law-abidingness and respect for the decisions made.

Differences between the indicated types of political cultures are clearly visible from Table. 14.2.

Table 14.2

Types of Political Cultures as Combinations of Object Orientations

Source: Almond S., Verba 5. The Civic culture. Political attitudes and democracy in five nations. Princeton, 1963. P. 17.

However, in real political life, Almond notes, the political culture of any society is a combination, a "mixture" of several types of political cultures. He paid special attention to three types of such combinations. For a democratic industrial political system, the following combination is typical: 60% representatives of an activist culture, 30% - subservient, 10% - patriarchal; for the authoritarian industrial - 5% - activist, 85% - subservient and 10% - patriarchal; for an authoritarian transitional system, respectively - 10.60 and 30%; for democratic preindustrial - 5.40 and 55%. These proportions, of course, are rather arbitrary and may vary, but they express the nature of the correlation of different types of political cultures in various societies.

The democratic industrial political system, but Almond, corresponds to a civic political culture, which is of a mixed nature. The author of the concept of civic culture claims that it is based on the ancient tradition of "mixed government" represented by Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero. This type of culture presupposes, firstly, the presence of three fragments of political culture in society (patriarchal, subservient and activist), and secondly, the presence of the qualities of subjects and "parishioners" even among active participants. Almond and Verba emphasized that patriarchal and subservient orientations balance the activity and political participation of the individual, thereby ensuring the stability and stability of the democratic political system. Thus, the "ideal citizen" must simultaneously: strive to influence the government and at the same time remain loyal to it; be potentially active, but not constantly active.

The main features of civil political culture are: consensus on the legitimacy of political institutions; tolerance towards other values ​​and interests; competence. Of course, these are features of the normative model of political culture. Along with them, Almond offers a more detailed list of features of civic political culture:

• ? knowledge about the political system, about what democracy is and how it functions in a particular country;
• ? the feeling by the individual of his political significance and the possibility of exerting influence on the policy of the state with his participation;
• ? recognition of the obligation to participate in public affairs;
• ? a sense of political freedom, expressed in the free discussion of any political issues;
• ? willingness to cooperate with others in political actions;
• ? pride in the democratic structure of their country;
• ? trust in public and state institutions;
• ? interest in politics, understanding its content and goals.

Despite some idealization of the concept of civic culture, many political scientists recognize that it is civic culture that is a solid foundation for democratic political regimes. Historical experience shows that the "transplantation" of democratic models in the countries of non-Western civilization most often ends in failure: either a direct return to authoritarianism, or a gradual "hybridization" of the regime. That is why one of the most important conditions for a successful transition to democracy is the formation of a civil political culture. Naturally, direct copying of the political culture of Western countries is impossible. In each country, the emerging civil political culture will be complemented by its own specific national features, which embody the historical and political experience of previous generations.

The typology of political culture proposed by G. Almond has been repeatedly criticized. She was criticized, firstly, for her extremely abstract nature; secondly, for American-centrism, since behind the term "civil culture" a very specific culture was visible - American culture; thirdly, for the fact that the entire Western culture in the proposed concept looked very uniform, while there were serious differences between the political cultures of Western countries, and fourthly, for the “static” nature of political orientations.

A more modified typology of political culture was proposed by the Dutch researchers F. Hunks and F. Hickspurs in the mid-1990s. (See Table 14.3) They proceeded from the fact that when typifying political culture, it is necessary to take into account such indicators as: the interest of individuals in politics (or political interest); attitudes towards the political system (pro- or anti-systemic orientations); political trust in state institutions and officials; orientation relative to the “output” of the system; assessing the possibilities of personal participation in political life and the impact on politics, i.e. political activity.

Table 14.3

Types of political culture according to Hynks and Hickspurs

Name	Object orientations
	"System"					Actor ("I", self-orientation)
	Empirical Indicators of Orientations
	"Subjective political interest"			"Political confidence"		"Participation in political actions"
Passive cultures
Parish
Submissions
Observant (4)
Observant (3)
Observant (2)
Observant (1)
active crops
Protest
Clientelelist
Autonomous
civil
Participatory (participation)
Civil Participatory

In the course of their historical development, diverse communities have developed many types of political culture, each of which reflects the predominance in the style of people's behavior of certain values, norms and stereotypes, forms of power and relationships with rulers, as well as other elements that have developed under the dominant influence of special geographical, spiritual, economic and other factors.

The basis of the typology of political cultures can be various factors: the specifics of various political systems (Harry Eckstein); originality of countries and regions (Almond, Verba); types of orientation of citizens in the political game, in particular moral and ethical, individual, traditional (Daniel Eleizer); ideological differences (Jerzy Vyatr); general cultural behavioral characteristics of a person (Douglas); differences in the activities of the elite and non-elite layers, etc.

The classification of political culture proposed by Almond and Verba in one of the most important works of world political science "Civil Culture" (1963) has become widely known in science. Analyzing and comparing the main components and forms of functioning of the political systems of England, Italy, Germany, the USA and Mexico, they identified three "pure" types of political culture:

1. "Patriarchal political culture". Using the example of African tribes or local autonomous communities, the authors show that they do not have specialized political roles, the political orientation towards tribal leaders is not separated from religious, socio-economic and other orientations. Ideas about the political system (which does not exist) and, accordingly, attitudes towards it simply do not exist. This type is characterized by a lack of interest among people in politics.

2. "Subordinate political culture". Specialized political institutions already exist, and members of society are guided by them, while showing various feelings: pride, hostility, perceiving them as legal or illegal. But the attitude towards the political system is passive, without the desire to change anything on their own or to participate in the process of making political decisions, to influence them. This type of culture is characterized by low political activity of citizens.

3. "Activist political culture", or "participatory political culture". Members of society not only form their demands of a political nature, but are also active participants in the political system as a whole.

American authors note that in real political life these types do not exist in their pure form. Interacting with each other, they form mixed forms with the dominance of one or another component. Along with the selected pure types, three types of mixed political cultures were proposed: patriarchal-subordinate, subservient-activist, patriarchal-activist.

Passive types include already known political cultures from the Almond and Verba typology (parochial and subordination), as well as a new subgroup of types called the “culture of observers”. The latter differs from the first two in a higher level of interest in political phenomena. General feature the whole group of this type is political apathy.

The active types of political culture include the following cultures: protest culture, characterized by a low level of political interests and trust in the authorities; clientele, characterized by a low level of political interests, but high confidence in the government; autonomous, determined by the average level of political interests and low level of political trust; civil, characterized by an average level of political interests and a high level of trust in power; participatory (participation), characterized by a high level of political interests and a high level of political trust; civil