Session 8 : Political Culture In Pakistan

Political culture consists of people’s shared, learned beliefs about their political system and their role within that system.Shaping people's roles and behavior within a political world, it influences the way people see their political world and what they expect from it. All democracies are strongly clouted by their particular political culture. Although each democracy has its unique political culture, various studies over the years delineated that the political cultures of successful democracies share frequent characteristics i.e  high level of political awareness,  strong sense of competence and considerable skill in cooperation, combined with rational participation in civic and political life.

Pakistan is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic country inhabited by rural and urban populations.While examining the political culture of Pakistan, one feels difficulty in defining it and to come up with concrete set of rules due to its heterogeneous orientation of the individuals and the society. In rural areas, biradri colonial legacy has played into the hands of politicians who conveniently used it as the advantage rather than performing their duties in developing a national identity and a consensual national political culture. Furthermore transgressions by the army, civil dictatorial  regimes  supported by self centered feudal classes in convenience with the clergy have yielded the fragmentation of political culture.Pakistan since its inception inherited governance system heavily influenced by the colonial tendencies to centralize power and controlling its subjects. This factor alone has a big part in shaping the existing conflicting political culture of the country.

The social culture of Pakistan is a set of various heterogeneous aspects which manifest themselves in the political orientations and resulting actions of the polity. The political landscape of the country is mainly dominated by landlords, businessmen and religious clergy who over the years have developed an unholy nexus with  ever dominant civil and military bureaucracy. The voting patterns are also divided on religious,ethnic and linguistic lines. The lack of education among the masses has further strengthened the stranglehold of these political actors on the political structure of the country. The biraderism plays a key role in the decisions of individuals and groups thus heavily affecting the voting patterns in the rural areas. With Sindh and Baluchistan dominated by the landowning classes, and masses being their subjects on a large scale, the political culture in these areas has remained autocratic. At the same time in Punjab the biradarism still dictates the political orientations of the people in choosing the candidates who can secure their interests as a group. Additionally in Khyberpukhtunkhwa people see politics through the prisms of religion and tribal affiliations.