Political culture and affirmative action

Political culture, political socialization, and identity politics converge in the debate about affirmative action in the United States. Political culture refers to the core values and beliefs about politics and the political process within a unified society. Social behaviors such as participation in political organizations, membership in special interest groups, and voter turnouts are products of political culture. Political culture may also be reflected in the media and in public and private social discourse.

In the United States, core cultural values related to the political process include strong emphasis on preserving individual rights and freedoms. Political culture in the United States sometimes entails mistrust of the federal government and a corresponding distrust of tax-dependent social services. Although the American political culture is rooted in a "government of, by, and for the people" in practice political and civic culture is subject-oriented. The low voter turnout reflects the sense of powerlessness that pervades American political culture. Political and civic cultures overlap and find expression in voter turnout and general attitudes toward and interest in government and politics. The political culture of the United States is far different from the political cultures in other democracies even though the basic elements of all democracies such as suffrage remain the same. Political cultures change over time, as social values and norms shift with successive generations and changing demographics.

Political socialization and identity politics are both related to political culture. Individuals in the society are socialized into their political and civic cultures, just as they are socialized into their peer groups. Demographic factors play a strong role in political socialization as well as in identity politics. Identity politics depends on race, class, age, educational background, and gender. Based more on factors related to personal identity than on factors related to specific political issues, identity politics fuels voting habits and political culture. Membership in political organizations is often based on identity politics rather than on issue-based politics although sometimes the two issues converge. For example, age is the main issue prompting voters to join the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) but age also promotes greater interest in retirement-related political issues like social security and Medicare.

Affirmative action illustrates the convergence of political culture, political socialization, and identity politics. One of the reasons why affirmative action is a hot political topic in the United States is because of the heterogeneity of the nation: the country's population is highly diverse and consists of large number of minority non-white individuals. Another reason why affirmative action is a relevant political issue is because slavery was abolished just over one hundred years ago, and Jim Crow laws were still in effect in the 20th century. With a history of racism and state-sponsored racism, the United States has had to redress its self-created social ills. In spite of a political consciousness that claims equal rights for all citizens, those equal rights have not been extended as much to non-whites as to whites and even less so to females. Females were until the early twentieth century unable to vote and still hold a paucity of political posts at most levels of government.

Race has become one of the core factors of identity formation and of identity politics in the United States. As the author of "Trouble with Diversity" points out, race is an arbitrary issue from a scientific point-of-view but remains one of the most salient features of personal and political identity. Racial identity does not necessarily influence political culture in the United States, though. Identity politics and political culture diverge on the issue of affirmative action. No matter what an individual feels about affirmative action the core political culture of the United States remains the same. However, affirmative action does reveal a rift in American political culture. Equality has always been an endemic American value, touted in the Constitution and branded as a key feature of American life. Yet diversity has recently become a keyword in American political culture. Preserving both equality and diversity has become the most current political challenge in the United States and this challenge is encapsulated in the debate over affirmative action.

Affirmative action suggests that equality has not always been a reality for Americans even if the word is embedded in the Constitution. Historical fact supports the point-of-view that non-white Americans have not experienced equality in the ways that privileged people do. Even though discrimination not as tolerated in American society as it was in the 1950s, some residual effects of racism remain in American culture. Enough residual effects of racism exist to prompt some voters to believe that affirmative action politics are required to promote the core ideal of equality.

However, affirmative action is also promoted as a method of increasing the level of diversity in political institutions as well as in social institutions like universities and corporations. A diverse population yields a plurality of political opinions that can make political culture more complicated but more representative of the whole population. In other words, diversity in politics can help prevent a tyranny of the majority. One of the ways diversity has been squelched in American politics is by what can easily be called an elitist political culture. Elected officials become powerful not just because of their race or their gender but because of the increased social capital gleaned from being well connected among the wealthy and powerful elite. Poor Americans, no matter what their race, have fewer opportunities to explore positions of power as viable career options because they have less access to social capital. Affirmative action has the potential to level the playing field for increased racial or ethnic equality but as it is usually practiced, affirmative action still perpetuates a divide between rich and poor.