Political Behavior

Political Behavior
Introduction
Every nation exhibits different political behavior. Political behavior depends on the political system adopted by the state and it is through this system that citizens develop political culture and political socialization. Some governments dictate the political culture and socialization of their citizens so that programs and political ideologies can be implemented and structured properly with total support from the people. These types of government usually resort to violence in enforcing reforms and do not tolerate dissent among its people.
Though political cultures are dependent on the political system, these are not static. They do change overtime as people acquire new political perspectives based on the experience they developed inside their own political organization or through the political issues encountered by other people in other parts of the world.
In the Philippines, political behavior is influenced by many factors and one of the dominant factors is our colonial history. The strong cooperation between the state and the church during the Spanish era left a remarkable deep seated belief to Catholicism that affects our political culture and socialization. Even our political perspectives are attached to the doctrine of Catholicism. The political arena is combined with religious affiliation and political affiliation.
The other influence of political behavior which shaped our political culture and socialization is the system introduced by the American government. The republican ideology adopted by the Philippines during the American regime help developed our concepts of what a government should be, its political process and the political participation of people. After the independence, we struggled to keep the ideals of American political behavior but the successions of political leaders have changed or altered our acquired political values. This module will discuss political culture and socialization, its levels and