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142 | Norbert Merkovity and Büsra Özyüksel
The significance of the theory of political culture is mirrored by the
fact that longer-term social surveys originate their theoretical framework
from this concept - for instance, the Eurobarometer used in the European
Union (since 1973), the General Social Survey in the US (since 1972), or
the Latinobarömetro and Afrobarometer, specialised in South America and
Africa. These surveys were inspired by Almond and Verba, but they cannot
inform us about how democratic the conditions are, or what political culture
looks like in the given country based on people’s value and political choices.
Therefore, the theory had to be renewed.
New political culture claims that the classic division of right-left has
been replaced by preferences related to global challenges, and social and
economic questions have departed from each other. Matters of gender,
morals, or lifestyle have become important (Clark and Inglehart 1998). The
attitude towards political parties is different, as well, which partly changes
the traditional (left-centre-right, conservative-liberal-social democrat, etc.)
political differentiations. Thus, these will also generate a different political
interpretation among citizens.
These new values refer to controversies already defining our present¬
day reality, and all citizens shape the political culture in some way when
they discuss globalisation, immigration, emigration, or unemployment, for
instance. However, it differs at the level of each individual how active they are
in these exchanges, and also how much of this discourse turns into action.
Another vital component of the network logic is popular culture. In fact,
the emergence of the concept of popular culture well preceded that of network
logic. Cultural publicity appears in political communication through popular
culture, and that is how politicians can reach out to citizens. However, we
must not forget that political communication, as a practice, and especially as
a research field, has always been interested in understanding the popular in
Europe and elsewhere. Elections can be regarded as popularity races when
the voters decide on the winners (popular) and losers (unpopular).
The specific features of popular culture, therefore, have always been present
in political communication. However, not only political culture tends to
move towards popular culture. This is a two-way road: popular culture
also penetrates politics (Street 1997, 14). Think about those events when
representatives from popular culture are involved in political action, or
organise movements.’ The two sides mutually enter each others field.
The discussion about popular culture brings us closer to celebrity or
influencer politicians. Ihere are two types of such personalities. One is a
popular person who is not an elected politician, not even a politician, but is
well known and has something to say about political matters. Examples are
* A reoccurring example for similar events is Live Aid organised by Bob Geldof in 1985, a
pop music event for the aid of starving people in Africa and in continuation of that Live 8,
a series of concerts in 2005 with Geldof as the main organiser to raise attention to poverty.