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About The Course and this Blog
- Robert Botsch, USCA Political Science
- I am the one on the right! I have been a professor of political science at USCA since 1978. We will use this blog for class discussion and for posting written assignments that I may make. When you post you may do so using the anonymous profile, but please sign your name to all your posts! Posts are shown REVERSE chronological order. The most recent post is at the top. So READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP in the topics shown in the BLOG ARCHIVE above.
3 comments:
Given the three cultures in their pure form I would choose to live in moralistic culture. I am intrigued by the idea of citizens and government working together to establish a "perfect" society. Of course we all know that no matter what we cannot please everyone in a society and perfection will actually never really be the outcome but the idea that the people and their leaders are working together to make their community a better place makes the whole political culture seem like a happier place for everyone. It's better than the individualistic culture where the government does not work with the people and the citizens "put up with" the problems in their society. The individualistic culture allows people to come in and bring in their culture that may interfere with another that’s already been settled in the area. The moralistic culture allows people to come together and work out problems and find solutions to clashing cultures. The idea that getting into politics in this culture is "giving back" to the community is also a positive outcome. Keeping politics strictly voluntary allows those people who believe in making a difference in their society work hard enough to actually make that difference, rather than "putting up" with it. The downfall to this political culture is that it really requires people who care about their community because it does not allow a monetary gain for the hard work it would require. It is a better choice than the traditionalistic culture because it allows a person who is lower class to help build the "ideal" community. If the government is always run by the upper class and citizens are not participating then change cannot occur. We see this all the time here in the south and even joke amongst ourselves that "it's all about who you know or who your family is". Sometime this political culture does not even allow us to accept other cultures and their "baggage" as described in the reading. The moralistic culture is the best political culture for a society because its citizens can incorporate themselves with the changes and productivity of the region.
- Kaycee Doying
Xavier de Jesus
If I had to choose from the three cultures I would go with moralistic culture. It gives a chance for all citizen's to voice their opinions. A moralistic culture is much closer to the ideas of democracy, since the participation of all is citizen should be invloved or the system fails.
Being in a moralistic culture is a much better choice than an traditionalisitic culture. When living in Puerto Rico, much of the government and the elites had strong influences in government. Many of the poor and common people are neglected their needs, and some need support from the government in order to live day by day. Here in South Carolina, I do see the same trend, but its not to the levels as Puerto Rico. Much is because of the changes by the influx of other cultural groups.
An individualistic culture is not ideal, but much of the nation as a whole is under that culture's umbrella. The Bush adminstration the example by being famous for corruption of government and parties dominating government.
Both Kaycee and Xavier would prefer the moralistic culture. Two factors seemed most important to them: widespread participation in determining the "good" society and a sense that the good society would include a better chance in life for those born into lower status.
If you look at the life chances and quality of living (e.g. access to health care and quality of schools) in comparing regions of the nation today, you will see that the area of the nation that ranks highest is the New England states where this "moralistic culture" was dominant. And that includes things like divorce rates and spouse abuse!
One problem with the moralistic culture is the amateur part-time nature of holding political office. Despite the ideal of widespread participation, low pay means that only those with independent wealth can really seek public office. It also means that staffing and professional training are less likely to be found in public officials.
Xavier is correct to note that Puerto Rico seems a lot like SC in its culture, except worse in that there is even less for those not born into wealth. Could he move in time back to SC, say in the pre WWII period anywhere from the 1880's on to WWII, he might see standards of living among the masses that are even worse then in the Puerto Rico of today. The few ruled and did all they could to keep it that way.
Both of these comments are quite satisfactory. I especially liked the detail and thoughtfulness of Kaycee's answer, which indicated that she read and thought about the entire reading.
Bob B
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