Subcultures

Abstract

A nation’s political culture is really a metaphor, and may conceal marked variations in the orientations to politics of different groups of the population. The term is probably as amorphous as ‘public opinion’; in reality we should speak of the opinions of sections of the public. These different group orientations, which may or may not result in an integrated and coherent culture, we call ‘subcultures’. This is a useful term, for it enables us to break up large generalisations and to observe deviations from ‘expected’ behaviour. Heinz Eulau has shrewdly suggested that it is probably best for us to think of an aggregate of subcultures rather than of ‘whole’ cultures.²⁸ Region, religion, social class, language, generation and occupation are often basic reference-groups for many people and provide the important cleavages in political systems. In addition, there are role-cultures, arising from the orientations commonly associated with one’s position in the political system, e.g. in the bureaucracy, political party or interest-group.