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Political Culture and Ideology in the United Kingdom

Hofstede's 5 Dimensions of Culture

Beliefs about Authority

Group versus Individual

Are social elites accepted as legitimate?

  • The British political culture puts a very high value on the status and the authority of social elites.
  • The lower classes believe that the elite have the authority to rule over them. (Working-Class Deference)
  • This is one of the reasons for the lack of violent class-based uprisings, for the success of the UK's Conservative Party among working- class voters, and for the maintenance of the monarchy.

Are social relations vertical or horizontal?

The social relations are horizontal because the UK believes in equality among members of society. The value of noblesse oblige, the belief among the British social economic, and political elite that their position implies an obligation to enhance the quality of life for those less fortunate than themselves, has created more equality among members of society.

Is the collective more important than the individual?

  • American political culture is usually seen as more individualistic and more suspicious of authority than British political culture. However, British political culture is seen as less collective than that of the rest of Western Europe.
  • For example John Locke and Margaret Thatcher thought individual liberty and restraints on government control were very important.

Is equality more important than personal freedom?

  • Personal freedom is valued over equality because the British may be much more like the residents of their former colonies than their European neighbors.

Society and Ideology

Repeated Experiences and Defining Events

Islamic terrorists attacked the British pubic transportation system on July 7th, 2005. This was an event dramatic enough to reshape political culture, even though it did not produce as much devastation as the 9/11 attacks in America. Traditions about limits on government affairs were faced with calls for tightening restrictions on groups and individuals suspected to be supportive of or engaged in terrorism. From this it is clear that a single event can affect political culture a great deal.

Major Ideologies:

Across the country- The country is home to John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, and John Stuart Mill. Some argue the country was the birthplace of modern nationalism.

Regionally- Little room was created for sharp ideological divides because of British tradition of evolutionary political change and the post World War II settlement dealing with economics. Extremist political parties have had little success.

Religion-Christianity is the main religion, there are also large communities of Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Jews, and smaller communities of Baha'is, Buddhists, Jains and Zoroastrians.

Demographics- According to the 2011 census, the total population of the United Kingdom is around 63,182,000. The 22nd-largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world at 256 people per square kilometre, due to the particularly high population density in England. The United Kingdom's extremely high literacy rate (99% at age 15 and above) is attributable to universal public education. the countries that formed the United Kingdom were subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for several centuries.

Ethnicity- White (87.2%) Asian (7%) Black (3%) Other (0.9%)

By: Lauren Baltimore

Political Socialization

Liberty versus Security

Main source:

Over the course of history government socialization efforts have been less effective than those of other major social institutions. Today, the socialization process in the UK is carried out by institutions such as the family, the media, and the educational system.

Affect on the culture and ideology:

The structure of the educational system provides to the amount of elitism in British political culture. Which secondary school a child attends is more important in Britain than a country like the United States. The private schools are called public schools in the UK. These elite "public schools" lead to the best universities and jobs.

Other Info:

The English Crown tried to foster traditional authority based on the concept of divine right to rule. The efforts were only partially stressful. English elites challenged the absolute monarchy based on divine power earlier than elites other places in Europe. Therefore there were more people who made up the political elite in England than anywhere else.

Do people value freedom from state action even if it means less stability and less security?

  • Yes. The wars that the British participated in were rarely the result of foreign invasion. This lead to the concerns regarding security to be less central compared to many other countries. The British have a very low uncertainty avoidance score. This means that members of society do not feel very threatened by unknown situations. However, there is a generally agreed recognition of the need for a balancing act between liberty and security.

Hofstede's 5 Dimensions of Culture

Hofstede's 5 Dimensions of

Culture

Power distance:

It is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Britain has a low PDI ranking of 35. This means that they are a society that believes that there should be less inequality. Also the power distance index is lower among the higher class in Britain than among the working class. The PDI score shows one of the conflicts in the British culture. The conflict is between the importance of birth rank and the belief that where you are born should not limit how much you can succeed in life. People believe that they should be treated as equals in some way.

Individualism

In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty. At a score of 89 the UK is amongst the highest of the individualistic scores. The British are a highly individualistic and private people. Children are taught from an early age to think for themselves and to find out what their unique purpose in life is and how they uniquely can contribute to society. The route to happiness is through personal fulfillment.

Political System Legitimacy

The Political Community

Hofstede's 5 Dementions of

Culture

With what political unit does the population identify most readily?

  • The population identifies the most with the New Labour Party most recently. Tony Blair's designation of a New Labour Party, moving away from social democracy toward a more moderate ideological position, made him, one of the more popular and powerful prime ministers of the last century. Gordon Grown, Blair's successor, put the party on the political left, he kept Blair's more moderate approaches. David Cameron seized on Labour's move to the left, he staked claim to the political middle ground.

Does the population as a whole have a strong attachment to an overarching national identity?

  • Yes. For example the British government decided to opt out of the European Monetary Union (EMU) program and not to adopt the euro as the official currency. This decision had to do with the identity- based emotion connection to the British pound. However, the presence of sharp ethnic divisions, due to territorial boundaries, has made attachment to the overarching British national identity hard at times. Recently, ethnic politics have rekindled the nationalism of the past, and the central government has made up with the Scots, the Northern Irish, and the Welsh.

Does the existing political regime have the right to rule?

  • The evolutionary, slow, and progressive changes to the political system have combined to create high levels of political system legitimacy. British political culture is marked by a faith in institutions of government and belief in the individuals right to protest government actions.

Can political leaders generally be trusted?

  • Yes political leaders can be trusted. But system legitimacy does not necessarily mean that specific leaders or policies are supported. If society dislikes the person in charge then the votes will reflect that collective feeling.

Masculinity/ Femininity:

A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success. A low score (feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best or liking what you do. At 66 Britain is a masculine society – highly success oriented and driven. In comparison to feminine cultures such as the Scandinavian countries, people in the UK live in order to work and have a clear performance ambition.

Hofstede's 5 Dimensions of Culture

Uncertainty avoidance

The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score. At 35 the UK has a low score on uncertainty avoidance. As a low UAI country the British are comfortable in ambiguous situations . The term ‘muddling through’ is a very British way of expressing this.

Repeated Experiences and Defining Events

  • Margaret Thatcher became Britain's Conservative Party leader and in 1979 was elected prime minister, the first woman to hold the position. During her three terms, she cut social welfare programs, reduced trade union power and privatized certain industries. Thatcher battled the country's recession by initially raising interest rates to control inflation. One of her closest allies was U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a fellow conservative. Thatcher resigned in 1991. Many of her efforts did not last beyond her term in office.
  • The reserve currency is a currency that is held in significant quantities by governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves, and that is commonly used in international transactions. The United Kingdom's pound sterling was the primary reserve currency of much of the world in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The emergence of the USA as an economic superpower, and U.S. economic dominance from the second half of the 20th century onward, as well as economic weakness in the UK at various times during the second half of the 20th century resulted in Sterling losing its status.

Hofstede's 5 Dimensions of

Culture

Long term orientation:

The extent to which a society shows a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather than a conventional historical short-term point of view. At 25 the UK scores as a short term oriented society which drives a great respect for history and tradition as well as a focus on quick results in the future. The notion of giving up something today for the promise of something bigger in the future is not a widely held notion, more usual is the belief that ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’.

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