European political culture and its impacts on Vietnam

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITITES




LE THU TRANG




EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE
AND ITS IMPACTS ON VIETNAM



MASTER THESIS
Major: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Hanoi – 2012
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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES




LE THU TRANG







EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE
AND ITS IMPACTS ON VIETNAM


Master Thesis in International Relations
Code: 60 31 0206




Advisor: Dr. Le The Que

Hanoi - 2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

1
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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1.1. Concept of Political Culture

8
1.1.1 Basic Concepts

8
1.1.2. Concept of Political Culture

11
1.2. Political System - the Center of Political Culture and its Relationship with Political
Culture

13
1.2.1. Structure of the Political System - the Center of Political Culture

13
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1.2.2. Relationship between the Political System and Political Culture

15
1.3. Features and Functions of Political Culture

16
1.3.1. Features

16
1.3.2. Functions

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CHAPTER 2: EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE

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2.1. Formation and Development

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2.1.1. Formation

20
2.1.2. Development

23
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2.2. Characteristics of European Political Culture

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2.2.1. Sources of Characteristics

25
2.2.2. Characteristics

28
2.3. Political Cultural Characteristics of France and the Soviet Union

33
2.3.1. French Political Culture

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2.3.2. The Soviet Union‘s Political Culture

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CHAPTER 3: EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE’S IMPACTS ON VIETNAM

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3.1. Overview of the History of Oriental Political Culture and the Influential Process of
Western Political Culture

47
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3.1.1. Overview of the History of Oriental Political Culture

47
3.1.2. Impacts of European Factors on Oriental Countries

49
3.1.3. Impact of European factors on Vietnamese political culture

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3.2. Vietnamese political culture in the history

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3.2.1. Cultural fundamental of Vietnamese politics

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3.2.2. Feudal era

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3.2.2. French domination

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3.3. European Political Culture‘s Impacts on Vietnam Right after its Birth

58
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3.3.1. Environment of Vietnamese political Culture in the Two Colonial Exploitations

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3.3.2. European Political Culture‘s Impacts on Vietnam in the Socialist-Building Era

69
3.3.3. Characteristics of Current Vietnamese Political Culture

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CONCLUSION

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REFERENCE

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INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the Study
Political culture is a vast field that contains historical experience, sense of social
community, customs, habits and trends affecting individuals‘ behaviors in political activities.
Hence, political culture research is of great value. It not only provides the researchers with an
overview of a process but also brings profound values to science and society.

Speaking of politics and political culture, people often think of politicians and parties but
ignore many other factors. Therefore, political culture should be examined comprehensively
from various perspectives, which is the aim of this study.
Europe is seen as one of the ―cradles‖ of human civilizations with the great achievements
in the fields of economics, culture, society and politics. Studies on European political culture
help us understand more about this continent as well as learn about its valuable experience of
hundreds of years. Because of its strategic geographical position, Vietnam was the target of
invasion by many countries in the world for ages. ―Flexibility‖ strategy has formed a
characteristic of the Vietnamese by cleverly absorbing the achievements of invading
countries to combine with the national traditional identities. Political culture is one of such
wonderful combinations. This study will describe the process of exchange and selection, and
the characteristics of Vietnamese political culture.
Political culture has certain effects on the formation and development of diplomatic
culture. The study will serve as a basis for the analysis of European diplomatic culture as well
as Vietnamese one. Thus, the countries will understand each other and share the interests to
collaborate on the basis of mutual benefit or resolve international conflicts by new diplomatic
thinking.
2. Literature Overview
The literature used for research and analysis is divided into the following groups:
(i) Documents on political culture theory
(ii) Documents on the European political culture in general and political culture of
European countries in particular
(iii) Documents on Vietnamese political culture as well as the orientation of building
political culture in the new context
There are original documents of foreign scholars, the documents translated into
Vietnamese and many works of Vietnamese scholars.
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Regarding political culture theory, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy
in Five Nations and The Civic Culture Revisited are the two typical documents providing the

basic information about political culture as well as the source to analyze the characteristics of
the political culture of the countries in the world. It can be said that Gabriel A. Almond was
the founder of the new field and his ideas and concepts greatly influenced it. In addition, the
theory of political culture has been complemented and diversified by the studies of other
authors such as Stephen Welch (1993), The Concept of Political Culture or Formisano,
Ronald P., The Concept of Political Culture, etc. The documents on the European political
culture are extremely rich and diverse. The most typical is Roger Eatwell (1997), European
Political Culture: Conflict or Convergence with nearly 300 pages providing extensive
information about the features of fundamental European political culture and political culture
of each country in this region. Research materials on the countries in the European region are
very large as well: Jean Blondel and Takashi Inoguchi (2006), Political Culture in Asia and
Europe: Citizens, States and Societal Valurs, Robert I. Rotberg, Social Capital and Political
Culture in Africa, America, Australasia, and Europe, The Journal of Interdisciplinary
History, Vol. 29, no. 3 (Winter, 1999), Phillip Schlesinger, From Culture Defense to Political
Culture: Media, Politics, and Collective Identity in the European Union, Media Culture
Society, 1997, Vladimir Tismaneanu, Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the
New States of Eurasia, John Gaffney and Eva Kolinsky (edited), Political Culture in France
and Germany, A Contemporary Perspective, etc.
Besides, there are additional research documents on Eastern political culture particularly
of the developing countries and China such as: Detlef Pollack et al. (2003), Political Culture
in Post-Communist Europe: Attitudes in New Democracies, Robert C. Turker (1987),
Political Culture and Leadership in Soviet Russia: from Lenin to Gorbachev, Larry Diamond
(1993), Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries, Zhenghuan Zhou (1999),
The Liberal Concept of Rights, Political Culture and Democratic Change in China.
In recent years, the interest in the study and teaching of political science and Vietnamese
political culture has greatly grown both in Vietnam and overseas. From different
perspectives, Vietnamese and foreign scientists have proposed various approaches to identify
the characteristics of traditional and modern Vietnamese political cultures. Studies on
political culture of Vietnamese scholars covering all aspects from a theoretical basis
addressing the fundamental problems and clarifying the common-used concepts in political

science in the West such as ―politics‖, ―political culture‖, ―political system‖, ―political
process‖, ―political environment‖, etc. or introducing various scientific theories, approaches
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and the basic arguments of Western scholars about East Asian political culture to regional
and Vietnamese political cultures, particularly in the renewal period. Tập đề cương bài giảng
Chính trị học (Lectures on Political Studies by National Political and Admistrative Institute)
and Văn hóa chính trị và việc bồi dưỡng đội ngũ cán bộ lãnh đạo ở nước ta hiện nay
(Political Culture and Leader Training in Vietnam Nowadays by Pham Ngoc Quang) are the
first two studies mentioning the concept of political culture. The former referred to only one
aspect of political culture – politics – instead of introducing the concept as well as an
overview of the political culture while in the latter the authors succeeded in generalizing the
concept of culture as well as its performance and influence on political life. These are of a
great practical value.
In addition to the ―enlightening‖ studies mentioned above, there are several researches
approaching a part or the whole concept of political culture. Hoa Kỳ - Tiến trình văn hóa
chính trị (America – Its Political Cultureal Process by Do Loc Diep) mainly examined
American political culture but it highlighted the influence of European political culture and
the process of receiving and transforming the European features to form the unique American
political culture.
Luong Van Ke conducted several intensive studies on European political culture. In his
two books of Thế giới đa chiều (Multi-Dimensional World) and Đề cương bài giảng: Chính
trị học so sánh (Draft Lectures on Comparative Politics), a part of European history was
lively replayed and the formation and the development of modern European political culture
was also shown.
Besides the studies directly or indirectly addressing political culture, there are supporting
researches in term of theory. They are: Hồ Chí Minh toàn tập (Ho Chi Minh’s Complete
Works), Journal of Philosophy, Journal of European Studies, Mác Ăngghen tuyển tập (Marx-
Engels’ Selected Works).
The foreign resources (in translation) are also quite various. They are Jean Jacques

Rousseau, Bàn về khế ước xã hội (Social Contract) and Montesquieu, Tinh thần pháp luật
(The Spirit of Laws) translated by Hoang Thanh Dam, or Wang Changjian, Nghiên cứu so
sánh phương thức cầm quyền của các chính đảng hiện đại (A Comparative Study of Ruling
Methods of Contemporary Political Parties), Crane Brinton, Robert Lee Wolff, John B.
Christopher, Văn minh phương Tây (Western Civilization), etc. The common advantage of
these studies is the provision of wide theory and knowledge of many socio-political issues.
However, they failed to directly and intensively examine the political culture, especially
European political culture.
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Last but not least, internet is an infinite and valuable resource for the study. Although
numerous materials have been collected, the study is still in need of more resources and the
results of sociological research and investigation to have an overall comprehensive view on
European political culture and its influence on the formation of modern Vietnamese political
culture.
3. Aims and Objectives of the Study
The overall aim of the thesis is to profoundly understand the influence of European
political culture on Vietnam in history. In other words, the thesis is aimed at how European
political culture impacted Vietnam.
Besides, the research has a number of specific objects which aim to:
- Understand political culture in general including its constructing elements, historical
phases and development
- Generalize the main features of European political culture in general and identify the
European factors influencing Vietnamese political culture in particular
- Generalize the main features of traditional Vietnamese political culture, its development
phases, Vietnam‘s reactions in face of external impacts, and especially how Vietnam
responded to and achieved European political culture
4. Scope of the Study
The research will focus on the political culture in the close correlation with the elements of
culture and politics as well as other elements constituting the national political cultures.

Besides studying political culture as an independent object, the thesis aims to address the
fundamental questions to provide general information about the political culture as a field of
science. The basic theories of the scholars in the world, the development stages and the
position of political in society and political life as well as its functions are all mentioned in
the study to provide an overview of political culture and a basis for assessing the
characteristics of the political culture of the regions and countries.
Additionally, the thesis will explore and analyze the major characteristics of European
political culture – the root of modern political culture and important emphasis on the political
cultures of France and the Soviet Union (later as Russia). The research on these two relatively
different political cultures gives the readers a deep insight and comprehensive understanding
of regional political culture of Europe. France and Soviet Union are not only the two
representatives for the political cultures of Western and Eastern Europe but also the countries
which strongly affected the modern political culture of Vietnam.
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Vietnamese political culture is the third focus of the thesis. The thesis will generalize the
characteristics of traditional Vietnamese political culture and the cultural background of
Vietnamese politics, and then examine the requirements of a socialist political culture.
Vietnamese political culture in this study is comprehensively and relatively completely
described in its development process through history and its particular characteristics and its
selective reception the political cultures of other actors particularly including France and the
Soviet Union.
5. Methodology
The thesis was completed by the available resources (books, newspapers, journals,
internet, etc.) together with personal insights to analyze, generalize and compare the
information. In the study, political culture is approached from the comparative perspective of
dialectical materialism and historical materialism.
Basing on the available sources and issued researches, I will generalize the information to
get the basic characteristics of the study cases. The methodologies of special fields of history,
politics and international relations will be also applied to clarify the issues by dealing

extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and
political behavior. And comparative politics analyzes and compares political systems within
and across different geographic regions.
My research methodology requires gathering relevant data from the specified documents
and compiling databases in order to analyze the material and arrive at a more complete
understanding and historical reconstruction of political culture in general and characteristics
of each region in particular.
Besides, the studies of international relations will try to explain a broad range of political
interactions among countries, societies, and organizations. Whether studying war and peace
or exploring economic cooperation or environmental conflict, research on international
politics requires a systematic approach to identifying fundamental processes and forces of
change.
This research will utilize the qualitative data collection tools, but is rooted in a qualitative
epistemological position that recognizes the importance of locating the research within a
particular social, cultural, and historical context. It also takes seriously the social construction
of these contexts and the identities participants construct within them.
6. Expected Outcomes
The study is looking forward to answering the question ―How was Vietnamese political
culture influenced by European political culture in general and French and Soviet political
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cultures in particular?‖ Hence, the characteristics of traditional political culture and the
changes of Vietnamese political culture will be clarified in each era.
Political culture is a new concept in Vietnam so that this study is expected to be a
comprehensive reference providing a general overview, formation process and development
of political culture in the world, especially European political culture. Understanding the
European political culture is a good lesson for Vietnam to establish and develop its foreign
relations with Europe so that the study would like to bring about an overall picture of
European political culture. It is expected to be an important reference for those who have
been studying and working in international relations. Besides, it will become one of the new

researches on Vietnamese political culture and external impacts on its formation and
development as well as its general characteristics. This study will also focus on the
components of Vietnamese political cultures: traditional political culture and modern political
culture. It serves as a useful reference to the study of Vietnamese political culture in general
and the impacts of European political culture on national political culture in particular.
Studying political culture in detail will have a more scientific perspective on political
system and its components and a better look on the rationalities or irrationalities of political
system to propose necessary changes. Moreover, explaining the political attitudes of people
in Europe and Vietnam will help evaluate whether policies are democratic and equitable, and
provide a scientific foundation for reformation of the political system in Vietnam
7. Structure of the Study
The thesis is divided into three parts: Theoretical background, European political culture,
and European political culture‘s impacts on Vietnam.
Chapter 1: Theoretical background
Political culture is approached through two elements of culture and politics. Like culture,
political culture is different among nations, countries and regions in the intersection,
reception and transformation. Like politics, political culture is associated with classes, nations
and interests.
At the aim of applying the research results in practice, the opening chapter not only
generalizes the history of establishment and development of political culture and its process
to become a science and research trend but also focuses on analyzing the role of the political
system as a core of political culture and the relationship between the political system and
political culture. Moreover, this chapter also outlines the characteristics and functions of the
political culture to set up the application of research results in consistence with reality.
Chapter 2: European political culture
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As a foundation of studies on political culture, Europe has special conditions of nature,
population, history, political ideologies, etc. to form its political culture and make a great
effect on the views of scholars in the rest of the world. This chapter generally introduces the

basic conditions and features of European political culture with full information covering
both Western and Eastern Europe, particularly their changes in political culture during and
after the socialist era.
As to provide an overall picture of the political culture of this area and explain its strong
influence on other countries in the world, especially Vietnam, this chapter will analyzes a
number of characteristics of political cultures of France and the Soviet Union as the two
prominent political cultures helping building the modern Vietnamese political culture.
Chapter 3: European political culture on Vietnam
Chapter 3 is an attempt to describe the process of Vietnamese political culture from
traditional to modern time, from the historical features to changes in new society. Vietnamese
is placed in the context of the Asian countries whose characteristics are completely different
from European and Western countries. These differences urged European countries to learn
and desire to conquer this mysterious land by the geographical discoveries in very early days.
From the original purpose of commerce, the invasion to the East by European countries was
increasing. Besides their goods, the arrival of the Western countries had great influence on
politics, economy and society in these countries, including Vietnam.
Chapter 3 provides a relatively complete overview of Vietnamese political culture from its
formation to each phase of development. This chapter analyzes the impacts of European
political culture on Vietnam by observing Vietnamese political culture in Vietnam as the
main object. Accordingly, the study is expects to supply new and more objective look on the
role of European political culture and highlight the identities of Vietnamese political culture
in the context of interference with other Western nations from a strange culture.

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CHAPTER 1
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. Defining Political Culture
The concept of political culture is increasingly put to use nowadays, especially in
political science. Researchers have offered several concepts of political culture but there is no
comprehensive and universal concept because of different approaches to political culture, the
diversified factors within political culture itself, and considerable distinctions between
countries, ethnics, regions, classes, eras, etc. However, almost all researchers agree that
political culture is the close relationship between culture and politics. In other words, political
culture is a cultural product of a certain political base. Thus, the best way to understand the
political culture is to examine it within the relationship between culture and politics.
1.1.1 Basic Concepts
The concept of culture:
The definition of "culture" was first offered by Taylor in Primitive Culture (1881). The
term of culture derived from a Latin word "cultura" implying the reclamation, cultivation and
planting of crops, and was later used in the sense of taking care of, educating and training
humans.
It is not easy to generalize ―culture‖ which is a poly-semantic concept. Cultures are
different among countries, ethnicities, regions and eras because of their different living
conditions, customs, traditions, and levels of socio-economic development. According to
UNESCO, there are hundreds of different concepts of culture and the most popular is:
"Culture is a term describing a certain development level of the society, and the creative

ability and capability of the human. This development level is reflected in how people
organize their lives and in both physical and mental values created by them".
The different approaches to culture contain the following factors:
Firstly, culture is a product of human beings (either conscious or unconscious). The term
culture is closely tied to and interacts with the term human: if there was no man, there would
be no culture; in turn, culture satisfies human needs and promotes development in all aspects
of human life.
Secondly, culture is not intangible. Instead, it is transferred into both material and mental
values. These values are present in human life to serve the different needs of humans and
direct humans toward a more "complete" life when the material and mental needs have been
gradually satisfied. President Ho Chi Minh also introduced an interesting concept of culture:
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"For the purposes of survival and living, humans created and invented language, writing,
ethic, law, science, religion, literature, art, living tools in clothing, eating and accommodation
and their usages. All of those creations and inventions are culture." [1; p.431]
Thirdly, culture reflects the distinctions among people on the base of their potential,
creative ability, the level of awareness, living conditions and traditional values accumulated
over generations. In the process of open exchange on the global scale, these differences on
the one hand have caused numerous cultural conflicts, and on the other hand have enabled
different cultures to exchange with, learn about, accept and change each other to enrich the
cultural treasure of peoples.
Nguyen Van Huyen suggested a specific division in culture: "Historically, humans have
experienced ancient culture and modern culture; synchronically, there are Eastern culture and
Western culture; socially, there are capitalist culture and socialist culture. Each aspect of
human activity has its own identity and cultural features including labor culture, lifestyle
culture, thinking culture, legal culture, ethic culture and aesthetic culture. Each living activity
also has its own cultural characteristics: economic culture, legal culture, social culture,
political culture." [8; pp. 53-54]
Apparently, there are numerous concepts of and approaches to culture which can be

observed as a broad term concluded from human life. "Culture has a significant function in
the life of society and mankind. It helps to organize and justify society, educating
personalities and promoting social development." [16; p. 45] Culture is not a strange or vague
term, it is instead created by humans and is closely related to the material and mental life of
all individuals, peoples, and nations. "Culture is a human term, a combination of all the
values, lifestyles, activities, potential, and development level of humans themselves. It is both
objective and motivation of development." [8; p. 51]
The Concepts of Politics and Western Political Theories
To understand politics, it is necessary to consider the history, existence and development
of politics itself as well as the political thoughts and theories. In terms of linguistics, the word
of politics being used nowadays came from "Politica" (Greek) implying the work relating to
the state (which includes the methods of organizing and implementing the state power and the
measures of achieving the state‘s goals representing the classes, ethnicities and nations).
Politics came on the scene at the same time when society was divided into classes leading to
the birth of the state and law. Since the very first state (slavery), there have been numerous
political ideologies which served as the ideological base for the state which represented the
rulers' essential goals of satisfying class interests, guaranteeing and maintaining the
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dominance of the class system and promoting various national interests. The political theories
were invented quite early both in the East and the West and have become a foundation for
modern political theories.
In the Asia, the most notable political theories are the four ideologies of ancient China:
Lao Tzu‘s philosophy, Confucianism, Mozi‘s Universal Love, and legalism. In the
conception of politics, Lao Tzu supported the idea of building a nation with a small surface,
limited population and non-educated people and no vehicles and weapons. Lao Tzu
advocated ruling the state not by force but ―Tao" to convert the people and leaving them
stupid to be easily ruled. Confucius is the father of Confucianism and his political ideology
was written in ―Lung Yu‖ by his students whose books were also based on his ideas (Ta
Hsued, Trung Yung, etc.). Universal love of Mozi contains many advanced elements. Mozi

praised the values of natural freedom and equality of the human. He said that "the origin of
the state was from the social agreement." [13; p. 24] The founder of "rule by law" is Han Fei
Zi who introduced the arguments against Confucianism and refusing any thinking of using
morality to regulate the society. He suggested the state‘s rulers to strengthen their power and
particularly heighten the law as the most effective instrument to regulate the society.
The political ideologies mentioned above play a significant role in the history of not only
China but also many Asian countries. Nowadays the pervasiveness of their influence is still
obvious. According to Confucianism, the traditional relationships in society of many
communities, ethnicities and nations have been established and preserved. These
relationships helped in constructing the states during different regimes (the feudal dynasties
in Vietnam were based on the village-country relationship; family is the core of the socio-
state institutions South Korea, etc.).
In the West, Plato and Aristotle were the most remarkable political thinkers of antiquity.
According to Plato, an ideal state was a Sparta aristocratic-styled republic, in which "the elite
of the ruling slaveholders were likely capable of understanding the super ideas and holding
the measures ruling the rest." [13; p. 34] Aristotle was the first person to separate power into
three boards of legislation, execution and judiciary – the fundamental principle of organizing
modern state power.
Accordingly, politics was born in ancient times and was followed by the appearance of
the political ideologies and theories of both East and West. It was created by society and is
associated with a turning point in human history when society was divided into classes and
the state came into being. "In each historical period, there were different political thoughts
and doctrines; they were periodical products and reflected the final economic interests of a
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certain social class or level." [22; p. 16] Politics is not an activity of an individual or a group
of people but "a wide and important activity sphere of humanity and a popular activity of
society. Human history since this division of classes is the history of politics." [8; p. 54]
Researchers have difficulty in conceptualizing politics as Hegel put it: the more complex the
objects were, the more numbers of definition could be approached. [22; p.5]

It can be seen that politics itself is divided into two parts: theory and practice. Theory is
the political thought and doctrine used as an ideological basis by one or many classes sharing
common ideas and interests to shape their political reality. Normally, when a certain class
comes to power, its ideology will become the dominant ideology in society. Practice includes
the actions that a class (or a class alliance such as worker-farmer coalition) or interest groups
take in order to gain, maintain and perform the state‘s power. Political power is the basic
terminology of politics and it relates directly to three questions: Who holds the power?
(class), What purpose does it serve? (class‘s interests), and how is it performed? (method).
When a class becomes dominant, their political power will become the state power. Each
class has different approaches to gaining, keeping and implementing the state power. Thus,
class is the nature of politics. In modern society, politics is closely related to political parties.
Classes and interest groups use their representatives (parties) to perform their political goals.
Lenin said: "The illiterate person stands outside politics" [22; p.113] and only by
obtaining intellectual, awareness and life experience could people have political self-
awareness and positive political attitude. Nguyen Van Huyen observed politics from the
perspective of culture: "From the philosophical perspective of culture, we see clearly that
politics is a product of culture. Culture is the values, lifestyles, activity capacity and the
development levels of the human. Therefore, the fact that the political goal is humanitarian or
not humanitarian; political systems, political institutions and political mechanisms scientific
or unscientific; the mode of political organization and behavior is consistent with human
morality or not, democratic or not, etc will reflect the culture of the politics." [8; p. 54]
1.1.2. The Concept of Political Culture
The concept of political culture was officially introduced as a modern political concept in
the works of Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba in 1950s and 1960s and their first book of
"Civic culture. Political and Democracy in Five Nations Attitude" (1963). In this book,
political culture was conceived as a "pattern of distributing the intentions of the members of a
community to political objects." [40; p. 390] S. Verba indicated a more comprehensive
definition: "Politica culture is the overall structure of beliefs based on personal experiences,
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symbols and values; this structure determines the subjective condition of the political
behavior." [48; p. 31]
The concept of political culture originated in ancient Greece. By the 19
th
century, with the
advent of capitalism and democratic politics in Europe, political culture was conceived as
citizen culture or democratic culture. Political culture is considered as one of the three main
aspects of political studies in the West: geography, law/institution and political culture. In
objective recognition of empirical-oriented researchers in the West, political culture is the
political awareness, political emotion and citizen‘s subjective evaluation of the political
system, policies and political processes.
The concept of political culture was born in the context of big socio-political changes in
the world when mankind had just suffered a horrible period of fascism and destruction during
World War II. It was also the time when the world order of the Cold War was set with the
confrontation between the two blocs of communism and capitalism at the highest peak; and
the time when colonial nations struggled for their independence and new nations were
established. That complex and mighty condition of political life caused political researchers
worldwide to question the necessity of religious issues, the eligibility of moral standards, the
traditions, etc.
Political culture is closely correlated with two components: culture and politics. It is
considered as an aspect of culture and politics. The interaction of culture and politics
constitute the political culture. Political culture, like culture, is a product of creative activity
of human and only existed since the appearance of politics. In other words, political culture is
associated with a class-based society and the state. Approaching political culture under the
perspective of politics and culture one need to note following definitions:
"Political culture is an aspect of culture in which there is a combination of values,
qualities, virtues, qualifications and political capability formed on a certain political basis to
perform the benefits of the class, races and communities in consistence with the
development-advancement trend of the human society. As an aspect of culture, political
culture is ―a vertical cut" of the cultural history accompanying the political activity." [8; p.

54-55]
"Political culture refers to the development level of human reflected in the ability of
understanding of politics, the skill of organizing the power system in a certain social value
standard to regulate the interest relationship among classes and to protect the interests of the
ruling class in consistence with the trend of social development and advancement." [23; p.
229]
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Regarding the origin of political culture, Pham Ngoc Quang said that "the political culture
of a class or a social system in general would be formed by the following logic: political
knowledge has been accumulated into belief and class‘s ideal, then political beliefs are
converted to practical political actions whose results help constitute the political standard,
tradition, lifestyle and habits in dealing with different political situations." [16; p. 27]
Generally speaking, political culture is a part of culture arising from political life and
become a factor in cultural study and political study. Like culture and politics, political
culture contains features of class and society. Through the process of socialization together
with the history that humans have developed, political culture forms the essential political
ideologies of the current norm as a perfect whole. It includes the elements of thoughts,
beliefs, value systems and political actions of individuals, classes, interest groups and society
as a whole aimed to effectively implement political-state power to satisfy the interests of
political actors.
In short, political culture is an important norm in political study and political activities. It
is a part or an aspect of culture in class society and contains the standards reflecting the
degree of awareness and the effectiveness of human activities in politics and represents the
development level of society in general.
1.2. The Political System - the Center of Political Culture and the Relationship between
Political System and Political culture
1.2.1. The Structure of the Political System - the Central Role of Political Culture
There are several ways to divide the structure of political culture depending on the
approach; however, in this study, I will only focus on analyzing the elements of the political

system as the core, the center or the source of political culture.
"The political system of a country is a social structure including political organizations
(state, political parties, socio-political organizations, political unions and movements, etc.). It
exists and operates in a formal legal framework and binding political relations to cohere the
above organizations into a body by which the ruling class exercise their political power in the
society." [17; p. 24] In brief, political system is "a part of the social superstructure including
the legal organizations and institutions related to the purpose, operational functions or
participate in political power." [5; p. 9]
According to the above definitions, the political system has three major characteristics:
organizations and institutions; legitimacy; and purposes and functions of or participation in
exercising political power. The formation of political institutions is influenced by both
objective factors (such as the class structure of society, the presence of political forces and
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their relationship, tradition, habits, the maturity of civic awareness) and subjective factors
(such as the maturity, capability and the political stance of the political parties and the
ideological similarities of the political parties) while "the form of political system is
determined by superiority at a given time of one or several common political factors." [5; p.
19]
Thus, the operation of the political institutions (state, parties, social organizations, public
unions and movements) in the political system is based on the political ideology and
politicians (together with political awareness) as the subject and object of politics. These
factors make up the political culture of each country.
a) Political Ideology / Belief Value
Political ideology, lines and policies reflect the class interests together with the methods
and means of realizing the fundamental interests of the class and the society. In the political
culture, "political ideology is the main core or the basic component expressing the creative
skill and capacity, the level of political awareness of the society in a specific historical
period." [15; p. 293] Besides, "an important part of cultural-political structure which clearly
reflects the progressive (or backward) nature of the politics is the sense of innovation and the

orientation of that innovation." [24; p. 15]
Political ideology is shown in political policies, strategic missions, and tactics of political
activities as well as in the standards, means and methods of operating political power and
completeness of the political institutions and political systems. One component forming
political culture as a typical physical and spiritual entity is "political norms which are the
political values accepted and affirmed by the society to orientate and regulate the behaviors
of political actors. These norms are institutionalized into the political institutions, political
organizations, power structure, methods and means of perform politics." [15; p. 238]
In addition, political ideology also contains traditional elements which build up the
political culture‘s identities for each nation, each class and each political regime, and
diversify the contemporary political culture.
b) Politicians:
It is expressed by the knowledge, wisdom and political theories, class views and stance of
each person and political organizations in two forms: (i) knowledge of political experience
which "results from a process of observation, experience, conclusion and accumulation
through the practices of the political entities establishing the lifestyles, habits, feelings and
political sensitiveness to form a practical basis for the advancement to theoretical knowledge"
[15; p. 234], and (ii) knowledge of political theory which "is a process of systematization and
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generalization to figure out the essential nature, the common, and the popular to upgrade into
theory, rules and regulations from the practical political experiences." [15; p. 134]
Political culture is expressed by people‘s needs, habits, self-disciplinary behavior and
positive activeness which create the social values of society. The role and the influence on the
political activities of humans as a political entity depend on the extent and origin of the
political faith and persuasion or political ideals that people are heading to.
1.2.2. The Relationship between the Political System and Political Culture
"The relationship between political culture and the political system is performed in many
forms and makes influence at different extents and dimensions". [9; p. 67] Generally political
culture is a means helping political system self-aware of its political missions and role. In the

institutions of authoritarian monarchy or dictatorship, or in the political institutions where
democratic rights are not fully exercised, the political system considers the policy making and
legislation as an exclusive right of the ruling class. Hence, political culture in these societies
is authoritarian or autocratic. However, in the liberal democratic societies, political authority
is a delegated power which is given by the people. This can be applied to the multi-party
governments where the opposition parties despite their failure at the ballot still get involved
in the political process to ensure transparency in the operations of state bodies and to ensure
maximum benefits to the people.
Political culture also shows its nature and characteristics of the class in the political
system. As mentioned above, the factors constituting the political system who directly
participate in the operation of political institutions are the political elites and the people.
When examining the two social models of autocracy and democracy we see in a autocratic
society, that the popularity of bureaucracy and authoritarianism have enabled them to become
main features of the political culture by "favoring the upper and bullying the lower"; thus, the
people are excluded from the political process and are not considered as actor of political
activity. Because of suppression, the people tend to react in ways which encourages rebellion
leading to the birth of a new state, religions and political parties. In contrast to democratic
societies, public officials are clearly aware that the nature of their power is a public power; all
of their political activities are supervised by laws, media and citizens; in other words, the
public support is one of the most important factors strengthening the political system. In this
society, the relationship between political systems and political culture is an interactive
relationship in which people are encouraged to participate actively in the political process.
They are supported to improve their capacity of participating in the political process at all
stages.
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In short, in the political system and political culture there is a close relationship "mainly
depending on how the political system and the political elites are aware of the political nature
and authority they are holding, and simultaneously on how the people are aware of their
rights, capabilities and obligations in participating in the political process." [9; p. 67] The

relationship between political culture and political systems plays a central role influencing
other relationships because the political system is the factor best characterizing the nature of
politics and it is also where political power is held and exercised.
Although the political system is the center, this analysis cannot ignore the relationship
between political culture and political environment (a general society including individuals,
communities, and social relations) as well as the formation, application and implementation
of political policies. As mentioned above, a political system is a ―sub-system‖ of the social
system (as a result of the social and cultural evolution and the process of dividing social
labor) and is regarded as the political environment of the political system. However, in this
study, I only focus on the political environment of a country‘s political system - the lowest
political environment, and political culture "is the soul of the political environment." [9; p.
62] Political culture is not only the foundation to identify and implement the complex
interactions in a political environment, political system and process of promulgating and
exercising political policies but it also imbues the development of the political environment,
political experiences, traditions, patterns of behaviors and long-standing values with a sense
of history connecting it with the present and future both in depth-dimension and ―time-
dimension‖ [9; p. 63]. From the formation of political wills through decision making and
establishing mandatory institutions in society to the implementation of obligatory regulations
including laws and political conventions, political culture has served as the foundation for
these processes. The closely interactive relationship between the political culture and these
processes and manifests itself in the interaction between these two factors.
Another factor relating to political culture worth examining is religion because numerous
ideas, values and judgments are associated with religion which is a part of the political
culture in each nation or country. This stems from the fact that "religion is a part of a certain
national tradition and national history; it has existed throughout that nation's cultural heritage
and is characterized in political culture". [19; p. 229]
1.3. The Features and Functions of Political Culture
1.3.1. The Features of Political Culture
It is clear that the political culture was not born by accident but a result of a long-term
movement of human society: accumulation, preservation and transfer of political knowledge

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and values. In other words, political culture is a socio-historical phenomenon. Besides,
political culture also has close ties with the other historical elements of the culture such as
education, philosophy, ethics, environment, and especially politics. Political culture is not
immutable. Instead, in the process of accumulation, existence and transfer, it has constantly
changed and accepted new elements to catch up with the practices of political life. Thus,
political culture contains the elements of history and legacy beside the element of class
(directly related to politics) in its birth, existence and development.
Political culture can be generalized by three main characteristics as follows:
(i) Political culture contains aspects of the class system: political culture is in a
relationship with the political aspects of society containing the elements of class; it is defined
by political decisions, worldview and ideology of a certain class. The sustainability and
viability of a political system depends on the relevance to the political cultural values of the
majority. Additionally, when a political system is changed, the newly-established political
system will set up new values of political culture for the dominant/leading class.
(ii) Political culture contains the nature of history: Political culture is constantly changed
because it is determined by various subjective and objective factors which regularly move.
"The replacement of different politics from the point of view of political culture is a
qualitative change of types and ability of political culture." [24; 171]
(iii) Political culture contains the nature of diversity and legacy: Political culture contains
an essential element – ideology. Since the ideologies of the classes are not the same, the
political culture of each class will be determined by the different elements, which contains
different forms and trends adapted to different characteristics of the classes in society.
Elements of legacy, preservation and advancement of political culture are expressed by the
fact that the common positive elements of the toppled/denied cultures are the
developing/evolutionary foundation for the creation of a new political culture.
1.3.2. The Functions of Political Culture
Political culture plays a significant function in society, especially in political life. Firstly,
political culture helps in regulating socio-political relations, building up people‘s belief in

certain ideal values. In addition, the political culture also helps political practices improve
and adhere to regulations in politics and helps people develop political creativeness,
sensitivity and political innovation. Political culture directly fosters the process of political
socialization, which makes acclimatizes the majority of the population to political activities
and makes them comfortable participating in the political process. Political culture directly
brings politics to life.
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Political culture exists due to the interaction of beliefs, values, traditions, ideals and
political means, standards, methods of organization and the operation of political power.
What influences political culture is the nature and the level of economic development, nature
and the condition of political institutions and political systems as well as educational
qualifications, general knowledge and the culture of society. The degree of democratization,
quality and capacity of information processing is also a factor.
Therefore, political culture has three main functions:
(i) Cognitive function: the political culture helps enhancing awareness, training the
political ability of the people in practical matters. It promotes the formation of a certain mode
of political behavior towards a particular direction such as the voters‘ decision to support a
certain party or candidate.
(ii) The function of orientation and regulation: Political culture orients and regulates
human behavior and socio-political relations. It also helps to accelerate the process of
political socialization making the people familiar with political activities, acclimates them to
the process of political participation and creation in political activities. In the collective
systems of values, orientations, assumptions and imitation, the political culture accounts for
the center and encourages the establishment and preservation of the political system. Political
culture expresses the relationships between individuals, humans and society in political life,
thus forming the political framework and model of society. Moreover, the "Asian core
elements of political culture in each historical period is the dominant ideology of that time."
[24; p. 174]
(iii) The function of evaluation and prediction: "Political culture together with individual

subjectivity is the basis for the evaluation of politics" [24; p. 175]
In sum, politics is a complex and sensitive field that may cause the opposing and contradict
views on theories, arguments or practices such as the disagreements over thoughts, policies
and division of power. It is associated with the daily life of each person in the human
community which is influenced by different cultural and religious factors. It is the human life.
It is the factor deciding the fate of the country and the development of society and people.
Therefore, politics appeared quite early and became one of the most concerned issues to the
people around the world.
Political culture has a close relationship with political system and political environment.
Particularly, the relationship of political culture and political system even influences other
relations when the nature and features of the politics are clearly shaped. Political culture was
the result of a long movement of the reactions between the human and social activities so that