Political+Culture

__**AMERICANS BELIEVE IN WHAT TYPES OF EQUALITY WHEN IT COMES TO POLITICAL CULTURE? HOW ARE WE POLITICALLY SOCIALIZED?**__


 * Political Culture:** a distinctive and patterned way of thinking about how political and economic life ought to be carried out.

•Liberty •Equality •Democracy •Civic Duty •Individual responsibility
 * 5 important views in the American view of the political system:**

Patriotism is a strong part of our political culture in that out of most developed nations, the U.S. has one of the largest percentages of citizens that consider themselves to be proud of their country. This also includes the concept of civic duty.

Economically, our political system favors freedom over equality in the way that we have a free enterprise system as opposed to an economic system that works to create economic equality for all. Americans tend not to agree with forms of socialism and communism.

Religiously, Americans tend to have some of the strongest beliefs. In various studies done, our political culture reflects a large percentage of people who “strongly believe” in God. However, another important piece of our political culture is separation of church and state. Our government and its citizens hold this value to be very important in decision-making.

Due to our country’s founding, American political culture tends to harbor a strong distrust of authority in general, which is reflected in many of the decisions and attitudes of the public.

However, it has been proven through polls that general trust or distrust of things such as the media, Congress, and the government in general stays the same with only slight periodical influxes.

Our society is also very big on tradition and preserving out heritage and political culture. We like to pass our ideals down for generations, which is why most of the core values of American culture stay the same even when other parts of life change.

Economically, Americans tend to be some of the least class conscience of any country around the world. Most people view themselves as working or middle class.


 * Internal efficacy**: the ability to understand and take part in political affairs
 * External efficacy:** the ability to make the system respond to the citizens

Efficacy in most Americans is proven to be higher than it is among Europeans or people from most developed countries. This includes discussing politics, signing petitions, and working to solve community problems.

Public opinion polls show that the majority of Americans believe in freedom of speech and expression regardless of weather or not they agree with what, specifically, someone has to say. Tolerance for different types of unpopular ideas has increased in the past half century drastically, as it can be said that people have become more liberal with the use of freedom of speech.

However, it has also been found that Americans fear that the government will become too tolerant with what is allowed, and that that will cause a breakdown is the core values of America.