The general objective of this essay is to recognize, based on theoretical and reflective analysis, the existence of a series of regularities in electoral behavior that are related to the political culture of society.
Introduction
Culture is formed from the way in which communication occurs between the subjects that create it, so it denotes all the material and immaterial manifestations of communication that exists in social life as there is an interaction between individuals who make up.
This interaction becomes more complex as it is increasingly shared, taking on a life of its own and creating society. People develop and use 'typifications' in the social world.
In any situation that occurs in the world of everyday life, an action is determined by a type made up of previous experiences. These typifications, the result of previously constructed habits and patterns, are used by the individual in her daily social action and become institutions.
So the search for the origin of political practices has to do with those habits, patterns, typifications and institutions.
Society is not independent of the citizens, who developed it, so it belongs to a diversity of interests of the different groups that make up that society.
For individuals, culture is needed to consolidate society, as a base force, within a certain space and time, somehow representing individual and group interests so that the policy that is practiced in that society is derived from the will of your interests.
From this point of view, culture would have a direct relationship with politics in the case that interests, on whether there is such a relationship between the political culture of a society with its electoral behavior.
The general objective of this essay is to recognize, based on theoretical and reflective analysis, the existence of a series of regularities in electoral behavior that are related to the political culture of society.
It should be noted that the configuration of this work does not investigate the sociological analysis of the causes of electoral behavior, nor of its meaning, nor of its alteration.
The concept of political culture has been present since the beginning of the political analysis, since Aristotle, but instead of calling it political culture, they called it “spirit of the nations”.
1. Definition of political culture
Political culture, conceptualized or defined with great approximation, could be understood as a flexible set of symbols, values and norms that constitute the meaning that unites people with social, ethnic, religious, political and regional communities.
This representation generates for students of the subject, various conceptual approaches in relation to the formation of nation-states and the construction of power in nations.
Interpretive sociology, as a research field for political culture, presents two basic instruments of analysis: the meaning and meaning of social action. The central idea is that behind the actions of men there are certain meanings, that the actions of individuals are not accidental or merely accidental.
In the political field, this implies that political actions are not located at the superficial or external level of the individual, but have a certain previous meaning that is acquired from the uses and customs of the community in which it takes place.
The accumulation of these attitudes, customs and criteria, creates meanings among the members of the community that in turn reproduce and form intersubjective codes.
2. Political Culture: elements that make it up
Because individuals belonging to a certain society or community, have characteristics that differentiate them and that constitute specific resources, they are factors that, in sum, generate what could be identified as a culture, and which in turn favors or hinders the political action of this human group.
To carry out an a priori analysis of the political culture of a society, we can identify a first set of elements made up of age, gender, education, income, social class and occupation.
A second group comprises variables that refer to the resources provided to the individual by the social context in which he moves; It is about communication and socialization networks, as well as the process of social integration that has surrounded the individual.
For all this, when entering into the electoral behavior of a certain society or nation with its political culture, the model chosen must consider these two groups of variables, which can generate a comprehensive vision of the results of an electoral process.
3. The political practices of society
Phenomenological social theory has as one of its central postulates: intersubjectivity as the origin of social action. Following this premise, the origin of the political practices of individuals must be located on the intersubjective plane, referring to the way in which the members of a society think, and what they think in relation to the political. And the fact of emphasizing it is important for the function related to its electoral behavior.
To define, the concepts of the interpretative approach towards political culture are taken in this order in order to:
- To know the meaning of the political action of the members of a society: to be able to interpret the codes through which relations between individuals are given, characteristic and distinctive to each social group. To recognize the meaning of those codes that society exchanges: to seek the structure of the common baggage of the social group under study that its members consider when acting.
This current tries to broaden the spectrum of analysis in what refers to the individual, considered in his mechanisms of consciousness, meaning, symbolism and worldviews as an individual who 'makes' society. These individual actions, like social actions, have certain meanings, which in turn come from a common deposit of senses, shared by the members of the social group.
The baggage of meanings and meanings that men provided and continue to apply in their actions forms the tradition of the senses, which in turn is shared by all members of the community and the source of their social action.
And although these senses start from the subjective level, it is very important to recognize them because they allow us to find out why the members of a certain community respond to certain problems; in our case, why they respond as they do in the political world.
4. Mobility and modification of political culture
Political culture is modified as new links are discovered between the immediate environment, the rest of the scenario and social evolution, as well as links between the various parts of each other, that is, as the perception of composition and composition increases. social organization.
And on the other hand, the political culture changes when the actions have more ambitious intentions in the effect sought in the composition and organization, in other words, in the relationship between the parties and in their activity and order in movement.
The social actor can go from a status of relative political inactivity because his culture increased or became more complex, because his desire to intervene in public life and his management developed. It can be the opposite case, that disinterest and inactivity increase.
5. The individual in political action
The political action of individuals is not always oriented from external power structures, but responds and is an objectification of the set of ideas about authority and power that are contained in the social acquis and that have historically settled in it.
The considerations that men make to themselves and with other men about authority and power in the social group, are obtained mainly from said group, they can change and they can be negotiated in every political action, but a good part is preserved and inherit.
In other words, the political is not found in the immediate sense of social action, it is gradually clarified and it may or may not be objectified in political action. Hence, every individual, even without acknowledging it, has a cultural heritage of the political. In other words, have a certain political culture, even if you make it objective or not.
6. Reflective Analysis on electoral behavior models
Elections are a decision-making process of the electorate, which are the result of the image that politicians and their actions have formed.
Therefore, the basis is perceptions, which in turn are formed by elements of a cognitive type that involve symbolic models coupled with affective elements, through which reality is interpreted; in short, the political culture of that particular society.
The decision-making process of electoral behavior is finally the expression of an attitude: the way in which individuals behave towards a certain object.
Attitude implies an opinion that has been constructed as mentioned in this essay, with cognitive elements, but also due to issues of an emotional nature and influences from our social environment.
In recent decades, according to the opinion of many specialists, it can be summarized that individuals have developed an aversion to a certain politician or party, which will influence the moment they make their vote and an opinion about something or someone.
These influences come from the behavior of people who surround each other, and the media is added to this environment.
Therefore, in the case of elections, as in everyday life, the actors decide based on rational calculations considering the benefits that voting for X or Y party or candidate will bring them.
However, citizens based on their perception of the good or bad situation they are going through, quickly lose sight of the general historical perspective, which means losing part of the baggage of experiences that that society had and forging their culture politically; Now it can be seen that the individual, the electorate, demands immediate solutions to deep and structural problems.
The human being is not only determined by the macro social conditions, the environment in which he lives and the institutions in which he is immersed, since he is the individuality capable of deciding and seeking or using information, arguments, knowledge and experiences. prior and at the moment for decision making.
The electoral behavior models are theoretical tools for the explanation of the behavior of the voters, because as human beings, they do not act solely because they belong to a social group, and therefore to the culture that they exercise in politics, but also account for the fact that they feel sympathy or affinity towards a specific political party, the image of the candidates, their offers, as well as the evaluation that the voters make of the administration of the ruling party.
When comparing the proposals of the Columbia and Michigan models that study the electoral behaviors of society, a vision of a citizen without freedom to make voting decisions prevails, characterized by lack of knowledge and information, the existence of a stable mechanism that governs behavior without the intervention of other factors of rationality, a poorly rational citizen, a defense of the vote not as a control mechanism, but as a mechanism of expression of primary identities, the political world is hardly given importance, since the citizen is immune the same for lack of information and capacity.
If it is opposed to the rational-spatial models, a more positive vision prevails because the citizen is granted the ability to have basic information on those matters that really affect and concern him.
Not so much importance is given to the elements that give stability to behavior, a greater degree of rationality is granted to the citizen, a citizenship is conceived that exercises greater control of political power without fear of stability and the supposed ignorance of the citizen, It also has a notable role in the political world: political parties, leaders, actors, their speech, the format of the competition, etc.
Therefore, when talking about citizenship and voting, it is very important to distinguish in the importance that is given to the stable and unstable elements of voting. But it is even more relevant to know how stable elements have been formed.
The presence of stable elements is not desirable, but rather rational, since it helps to reduce political information and the cost of obtaining it and making a decision. Therefore, it is normal for citizens to tend to form stable elements.
The evolution of modern elections is linked to representative democracy. However, these are not yet without problems; above all they face the fact of improving the quality of the democratic regime.
7. Other criteria to find the closest to a conclusion
In a society where relations of domination and inequality exist based on the presence of social classes, different ethnicities and different religions, among other elements, each sector that integrates it will manifest different perceptions on similar aspects.
For example, what does democracy mean? Esteban Krotz's consideration that the study of political culture in Mexico obliges the recognition of multiculturalism adds hegemony and consensus, on the one hand, and aspects of the political and social system, on the one hand, to aspects of that culture. other.
It also maintains a perspective that from our point of view is central and that we can state in the following way: in political culture there is more culture than politics. In his words:
Or is it that they do not appear in the riddles, anguishes, hopes and behavior of the end of the six-year term of the middle classes, of the officials and politicians around the designation of candidates for the occupation of administrative and political representation positions, the same central elements of your political culture that can be observed in your daily behavior in relation to the most diverse instances of the administrative bureaucracy, assists, judicial, police, prosecutor? Is it not seen, for example, in analyzes of areas as dissimilar as university institutions, opposition parties and ecclesiastical bodies, not only very similar ways of exercising power but also similar ways of thinking, justifying and justifying it? ritualize it?
(Krotz, 1996: 21).
It is true that a proposal for a synthesis between systemic explanations and those related to electoral behavior and culture, or better expressed in current times, social action, is the one elaborated by Bourdieu in the concept of habitus, where rational choice (rational choice) would be constantly interfered with by the unconscious strategies of the social subjects.
However, this attempt to recapitulate between systemic explanations and those based on social action has not represented, more than a suggestive offer to study political culture, perhaps this is due to the methodological and technical problems faced, since said proposition. Furthermore, it should be clarified that the study of electoral behavior should not be underestimated.
Its importance lies not only in the fact that political trends can be outlined, even if they are nuanced by factors such as fraud and vote buying (Krotz, 1993), but that these trends have a direct impact on the political organization of a country.
Finally, based on an observation on conceptual foundations, it is not possible to determine exactly whether electoral behavior is directly a product of culture; rather today, culture has undergone radical transformations in societies, which is demonstrated in the case of an individual who seeks to decide who to vote for; the person will be influenced from other ways and not only from their knowledge and / or previous experiences transmitted or lived, but from what they see, read and hear in the media, these allow them to form an opinion that intertwined with their wisdom, will affect their final behavior in front of the vote.
Bibliography
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Consulted articles:
• de la roche, fabio lopez; Approaches to the concept of political culture, http://www.lycos.es/
• galindo caceres, jesús; International Dimensions of Communication, Political Culture, Communication and Democracy, Number 7, Year 2, June - August University of Colima, 1997.
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• http://comunicacion.idoneos.com - Conceptual Network
• http://educacion.idoneos.com - Conceptual Network
• http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/ - Network of Scientific journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico.
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• Criado Olmos, Henar (2007), Rational choice and electoral behavior: beyond the paradox of the vote, Open Area nº 102/3.
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