This is the third in the series of "Understanding Political Identity" where I make a humble attempt to simplify the complex world of political identity and what are the different facets that form the derivatives of the sum which is the central point of discussion: political identity. In the last part of the series, I will explain my own stance, why do I believe in it and attempt to make a case for capitalism and against the popular yet suffocating, stenchful and nauseating narrative of leftist ideology. The different parts of the series are as follows:
P-1: Understanding Political Identity: Definitions
P-2: Understanding Political Identity: Role of religion
P-3: Understanding Political Identity: Major political values
P-4: Understanding Political Identity: An Indian perspective
P-5: Understanding Political Identity: Case for Capitalism in India
The most critical thing to understand before defining a political identity is what exactly are values or driving force that shapes it. There is no monolith of a wing or an ideology. Every individual differs in their opinion regarding various discussion points. The differences occur due to unique experiences and diverse knowledge of the individual. Therefore, it is important to know what values shape your own political identity. For this purpose, I will refer to a paper titled "Basic personal values, core values and voting: A longitudinal analysis" by Shalom H Schwartz, Gian Vittorio Caprara and Michele Vecchione published in the journal "Political Psychology" in 2010.
The values are defined as core political values and basic personal values.
Core political values are those principles and belief assumptions about government, citizenship and society. They serve as focal points for taking position in a political environment. These values determine a person's conviction on how a government, or at all, should run. Basic personal values are cognitive representation of your desirable goals and act as guiding principle in people's own lives.
The core political values are as follows:
Law and Order This relates to enforcement and obedience to the law and protection against any force which is a threat against the social order.
Traditional Morality This relates to whether a person believes in a religious and traditional family system and norms or increasingly novel and open lifestyles.
Equality This relates to egalitarian distribution of opportunities and resources.
Free enterprise This relates to your belief in whether government should plan economy(socialism as practiced in Cuba and Venezuela) or should be left to the market forces(capitalism as practiced in New Zealand and Taiwan).
Civil liberties This relates to a person's freedom to act and express as he finds appropriate.
Patriotism This relates to unflinching, unconditional and support of and remain intolerant to any criticism of the nation.
The basic personal values are as follows:
Power This relates to a person's social status and prestige and his control over people and resources.
Achievement This relates to personal success as per social standards by demonstrating your competence.
Hedonism This relates to the desire of sense gratification.
Stimulation This relates to a need for excitement, novelty and challenge.
Self direction This relates to a person's desire for independent thought and exploration.
Universalism This relates to a sense of understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature.
Benevolence This relates to preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent contact.
Tradition This relates to respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide the self.
Conformity This relates to actions, inclination and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectation and norms.
Security This relate to safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationship, and of the self.
The important conclusion of the research is that the basic personal values act as an anchor to the core political values which decides the voting pattern. To understand this, we must try to look into few illustrations:
Let say, a person is extremely successful businessman and particularly self conscious about his prestige in the society. He values his freedom and does not let tradition dictate his conduct. He is fairly nationalistic and charitable. From the following statement, we can safely infer, without estimating the degree of his values, that the person is patriotic, believes in liberal lifestyles, and a proponent of free enterprise. Therefore, the person is more likely to choose a political party with whom his values match. But this would be an ideal condition because it is likely that one form of political value dominates over other. Such as traditional morality is extremely nonnegotiable for a person and his voting pattern will depend singularly on his traditional belief. There can also be several people for whom power matters a lot and they will opt for those political parties with whom the person feels they can gain power. This becomes more complex in a nation as diverse in India. However, India is a poor country so we can reasonably conclude that those political party that values development over anything else are more likely to get votes. The voting patterns are extremely difficult to gauge without context.
Let us take a case and list down different political values. There are two political party A and political party B. Political party A believes in development for all, trusts in capitalism and small government, integrity of the nation is important and believes in providing aid to the disadvantaged and minority sections as long as needed. Political party B believes in development for all, trusts in government controlled economy and big government, integrity of the nation is important and does not believe in the charitable power of private and individual person and only government can help the poor. A person holds the following political values: a. Preservation of Law and Order is must
b. Conservative values are important
c. Advocate of meritocracy
d. Privatization of public sector enterprises
e. Champion of freedom of speech subject to public order and preventing blasphemy
d. Does not believe in Patriotism Q. Who is the person more likely to vote for, Political party A or Political party B? There is no straight forward answer to this. The values of the person does not indicate his order of preference and points which are non negotiable for him. Assume, the person believes, in his present context whatsoever that might be, privatization is required for efficient working of a firm and this is non negotiable with him. Therefore, this person is more likely to but not certainly vote for Political party A which believes in capitalism over Political party B which believes in Socialism. Several permutations and combinations can be made and his voting pattern will change accordingly. Therefore, It is the responsibility of a eligible voter to understand and gauge is own values and vote accordingly in his self interest.
8 values is a great quiz to assess your political identity. The results of my political identity are in the image below. I will talk about my political identity in the later articles.
To take this quiz, Click Here