Compare And Contrast The Individualistic, And Political Subcultures

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The United States has a federal system of government consists of local, state and federal governments (Leckrone, 2013). The federal government has powers that are reserved by the national Constitution and the rest are delegated to the individual states. The Constitution lacks a formal discussion of local powers thus states rely on delegated powers and the leeway to develop their own policies (Leckrone, 2013). Thus, the power sharing that occurs allows each level of government to develop their own policies which influences and contributes to political cultures. Political culture is defined as the system of beliefs, values, and expressive symbols that define which political actions take precedence (Zimmerman, 2003). More importantly, it refers to individual values and attitudes that people collectively hold towards government policies (Zimmerman, 2003). The collective attitudes provide the direction for action, and which policies are constrained or passed. For this assignment I will compare and contrast the individualistic, traditionalistic and moralistic political subcultures. …show more content…

Individuals with this mentality are not interested in furthering a common good, but they focus on using the political system for the betterment of private concerns (Leckrone, 2013). Political innovation lacks, unless there is a large public demand for services. At that point politicians will advocate for new policies in order to achieve electoral success (Leckrone, 2013). The individualist political culture is not issue driven; instead it is built on patronage and constituent service (Leckrone, 2013). The individualistic culture is generally considered a dirty business and may encourage corruption (Leckrone,