AP Comparative Government and Politics Political Identity and Society

Political Identity and Society Differentiating Terms ● Race is distinguished by shared physical features, and not addressed in the AP Comparative Government and Politics exam. ● Ethnicity is essentially a cultural identity shared by a group of people. ● These are based on different features(like heritage, history, language, location, theology, and more). ● People who share these features are given the identity by the original group. ● Ethnicity and national identity need not coincide. Within one nation, there could be a variety of different ethnicities. ● Nations share political aspirations (as mentioned in unit 2). ● Nationalism will be a prevalent term in the course, and it is related to nations, in that they are a sense of pride in the nation. It can also refer to the confidence that the people can achieve the nation’s political aspirations. ● Citizenship is a formal identity that establishes who is involved in the state. Citizenship also comes with certain legal rights and responsibilities ● The equivalent to nationalism in states is patriotism, in terms of citizenship. Patriotism is a belief in the state’s capabilities. Social Cleavages Different Types of Cleavages ● Cleavages are the basis for political conflict, in that they separate different people into their interests. ● There are some common forms of social cleavages. ● Cleavages conflict with each other, and occasionally (though rarely) threaten the integrity of the state. Cleavages’ Effect on Society ● Cross-cutting cleavages occur independently of each other. Therefore, they divide people into their individual interests. ● Coinciding cleavages (also called reinforcing cleavages) have a strong relationship with others. ○ If owners were in favor of the church, lived in rural areas, and were in favor of industry control, and were majority male, those would be coinciding cleavages. ● Coinciding cleavages can create an unstable society. When people’s identities can be divided into a small number of groups, there can be several problems. ● The majority would always hold power, although the rest also account for a large part of the population. ● People would divide and be pitted against each other, and neither would be satisfied with the political status quo. ● Cleavages could be centrifugal forces for a state, which contribute to division and polarization. ● On the other hand, centripetal forces unify the people of a state. Political Attitude ● Political attitude is distinguished by what an individual believes an acceptable rate of change is. ● Radicals prefer dramatic and revolutionary change and believe that completely new institutions must be established. ● Liberals prefer progressive change through legal reforms. ● Conservatives believe there is very little or no need for social change and are often critical for proposed changes in the system. radical liberal direction of change moderate conservative reactionary backward forward “good old days” no change nature of change revolutionary evolutionary new regime existing regime slow and gradual violence willing unwilling unwilling differs unwilling sometimes willing Political Ideology ● Political ideology is what an individual believes the goal of politics is. Fascism Fascism guarantees neither equality and freedom. They praise the state and their people’s apparent superiority. ○ Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy are prominent examples of past fascist states. Communism Communism believes that economic equality results in true freedom. They also believe that economic inequality undermines a state. Social Democracy Social democracy is also called socialism. They share communists’ beliefs on economic inequality. However, they oppose the strong state control that communism brings. Instead, they promote different policies for economic redistribution. Liberalism Liberalists believe that economic and personal freedom are important goals of a state. They disagree with state interference in their beliefs and actions. Anarchism They believe that a state is not essential to, and harms, the establishment of equality and freedom. Therefore, abolishing the state is the first step in realizing them, so that the people can cooperate and build a strong community. Political Culture ● Political culture is the norm and standard for political activity in a country. ● Typically, historical events go hand-in-hand with the development of political culture. In turn, political culture influences historical events as well. ● Political culture follows the trend of globalization, where the development of technology brings people from the globe together. ● It also follows modernization, which is a trend of development that nations start from valuing religion and tradition and go toward valuing scientific and economic development, as well as establishing human rights. ● Democratization states that states develop toward a democracy (and usually toward capitalism). This is seen in historical trends where democracies became the leading form of states after communism collapsed in Europe. Since then, other states have been following suit. ● However, this cannot be generalized past the present, as there are disputes about whether these trends will continue; some speculate that after this era, people will return back to a more enclosed society.