What Is Parochial Political Culture? Definition, characteristics and examples

Society and culture cannot be separated. What is done continuously and consistently is part of culture.

Culture in society is also related to politics, that’s why this paper will provide an explanation of  the meaning and examples of parochial  political culture .

Parochial Political Culture

Parochial political culture is a system of government that is still relatively simple, with the traditional identity of government being carried out even though it considers community participation important, but in general the community does not carry out its roles and functions. This is based on the attitude of the people who are still apathetic towards the politics that occur.

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Definition of Parochial Political Culture According to Experts

The experts’ definition of parochial political culture includes;

Gabriel Almond

According to him, the notion of parochial political culture is the political culture of a society that has a low level of participation, this is based on the main cause, namely lack of knowledge and insight into society, in other terms cognitive factors.

The cause of the low level of community participation is because the education they receive is limited and closes themselves to the social changes that occur.

From the series of definitions of parochial political culture above, it can be said that parochial political culture is the culture of the people involved at a low political level, which is based on their knowledge and insight into the lack of education in politics.

Characteristics of Parochial Political Culture

The inherent characteristics of a society with an adherence system in this parochial political culture include the following;

  1. The formation of apathy in society, this condition causes them to not know and do not want to know about existing social phenomena.
  2. Carried out by traditional communities, in general, parochial political culture is carried out by people who still adhere to traditional systems with their pattern of thinking not yet being influenced by the various positive and negative impacts of globalization.
  3. Many are carried out by developing countries, the characteristics of developing countries that live in society often run this parochial political culture system, because their education is lacking, causing a lack of interest and a desire to avoid the world of politics.
  4. There is no visible social role for government figures, this is usually based on the attitude of the people who still feel they do not care enough about development which ultimately makes them indifferent to figures in the local political world.
  5. The parochial political culture carries out identity politics which is still very strong. The definition of identity politics is politics that is determined according to heredity, gender, and other criteria.

From the explanation above, it can be said that parochial political culture is still often found in developing or poor countries, even Indonesia as the country with the largest population in Southeast Asia is still often found in cases of parochial political culture, for example the following;

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Examples of Parochial Political Culture

A real example of this parochial political culture, for example, is that of the people who come from the Baduy tribe in Banten Province, they shut themselves off from existing progress, and don’t want to get involved.

The people there run politics from heredity and don’t want to be known by people and even introduce themselves to people.

Community characteristics like this are still attached to explaining parochial political culture, based on social studies what they do is part of social reality which is influenced by developing cultural beliefs.

Another example, regarding the phenomenon of implementation in this parochial political culture also occurs in some areas on the island of Papua, with a lack of a higher education level in this area when the presidential election process occurs only through representation to their tribe,. 

This is very detrimental both for the people themselves or for government, this is based on the lack and failure of the government in providing political education.

This is an explanation of the meaning, characteristics, and examples of  parochial political culture.  Hopefully this article can provide insight and knowledge for all readers who are studying the material about “parochial political culture”. Thanks,