Within North America there is a divided in the political cultural of Canadians and Americans over the understanding of freedom. For Americans, freedom is the absence of limitation on individual rights, while Canadian’s understand freedom as the political right to express their civil liberties. This difference are due to the cultural divide brought by the conservatism and the continental fragmentation that prohibited liberal political dominance.
The political culture of the United States can be observed as strictly liberal, with a heavy orientation around individual freedoms and a suspicion of government policies. In fact, the American political culture is distinctly Lockean and functions around a social contract between the people and an elected government. In this system, the people support an elected government and promises to follow the laws and rules established by the government, but in return seek the protection and maintenance of their
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The theory argued that in colonial societies, their political culture originated as fragments of larger European society. In Canada, this theory holds precedence due to the two European political cultures; French and English. Moreover, the immigration of Anglo-American loyalist during the American Revolution aided in the dilution of strict liberalism. Interestingly, French society and legal institutions such as the civil code, the Catholic faith and British colonial authorities (textbook Pp.38) reinforced the notion of conservatism; the acceptance of human, social, political and economic inequality as part of the political culture (textbook Pp.38). Therefore, with a mixture of liberalism and conservatism Canadian political culture developed principles that reflected a corporatist, collectivist, and deferential culture that refuted peace, order and good government, rather than life liberty and