Have we lost our
political culture?
According to Trevor Monroe (1993) political cultural
are attitude, feelings, ideas and values that people have about politics,
government and their own role and more generally about authority in all forms.
It is universal and varies from country to country. Therefore you cannot
understand the politics of any country without looking at the political culture
of the country. The political culture also changes in some country over
different periods of time.
Was
this one of the major cause of the 2016 election results?
Contributor:
Maya Hill-Allen
4th Year History and Social
Studies Student
Bethlehem Moravian College
To an extend as this last general election had a low voters turn out. In my view people of Jamaica vote on the aspect of tradition, meaning they grew up in a household that they saw had only voted for one political party and so they don't make a choice for themselves they vote for the same party. Now when that party make not produce the work that they wanted they rather not vote. Also it is a trend in Jamaica, where a large percent of its population vote/not vote because of monetary benefits, instead of voting to truly exercise their democratic rights. I believe that those are some of the political culture of Jamaica. As a result of the election its has to do with the manifestos of the political parties and the citizens gravitate toward the one they like. That being said the political parties of Jamaica need to work assiduously, to show the true aspect of democracy.
ReplyDeleteWe can safely say that the election culture is lost in Jamaica as evident in the 2016 results. Firstly, we should look at the violence affiliated with the campaigning of both political parties against each other. Secondly, Jamaican citizship was degraded as people identified themselves with the political parties than as Jamaicans. The cutruption that existed in the election such as buying votes, seem to have become a norm. These factors among others have summed up to cause the outcome of the elections as less than 50% of the voting population turned out. You can say many of us are frustrated, or is it a sign of poor citizenship education. Whatever it is, we have lost the true traditions of elections in Jamaica and if it is not corrected, non participators will have to evacuate the country for the whole season in 2020 when the next general election is called.
ReplyDeletei definitely agree with you Rushelle. i for one have lost that political drive and enthusiasm.This is as a result of poor performances of political leaders and council members that are put in place.They helped to decrease the political culture of Jamaica.
ReplyDeleteI will agree with everybody but to an extent. One, we blame the politicians for changing the political culture. Eventually changing the political dynamics of the country. However, I believe that the electorate is one of the cause of this drastic change. How so? As citizens we all have a part to play in the electoral system as well as influencing the type of decisions make by the Government. If we don't do our part, then we will continue to have these issues unsolved.
ReplyDeleteTo some extent we have lost our political culture. Because some of us do not understand politics within the country and feels its all about fighting and killing our fellow Jamaicans during politics time that is politics. There has to be a winner and a loser. With Citizenship Education I think it will further educate our political on our political culture and how it shapes one's country.
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