Parochial Political Culture: Definitions, Characteristics, And Examples

Illustration of political stance (Unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA - Political culture is a society in applying its political attitudes. According to an article uploaded by VOI, Indonesian people have a mixed political culture, namely a mixture of parochial politics and participants.

Indonesian society adheres to a parochial culture because it is caused by many things. Starting from the factors of low levels of education, geographical conditions, to economic factors.

Then what is meant by parochial political culture? The following is the definition, characteristics, and examples.

Understanding Parochial Political Culture

Parochial political culture is a type of political culture that has a limited reach of participants only in certain areas that are minimal or narrow, quoting Sahya Anggara's book Sistem Politik Indonesia (2013).

The nature of this political culture tends to be regional or regional. People in these areas are less enthusiastic about participating in broader political interests. The political orientation of the people is very low.

Parochial communities are reluctant to be involved in political interests outside their regions, for example the presidential, DPR elections, etc. They only want to be involved in political affairs in their area, such as village head elections, regent elections, community leaders, and so on.

In a journal entitled Political Culture in Indonesian Political Communication, Amiruddin Setiawan explained that parochial politics generally occurs in Africa, rural communities in various countries, including the interior of Indonesia.

Indonesian people who adhere to this political culture usually live in remote areas. Areas with limited access, be it transportation, communication, and so on. We can say, these areas are like in the interior of eastern Indonesia, Papua, Maluku, or NTT. Then in the villages in the interior of Java, and so on.

Characteristics of Parochial Political Culture The level of citizen awareness of the authority and central regulations of the state government is still low. The community has no interest in broad or outside political objects. People are only enthusiastic about political objects that are in their territory or have direct interaction with them. Citizens do not play a special political role. However, they mix these roles with other roles in their daily lives. The areas where residents live still adhere to a certain social system and are traditional in nature. Citizens' expectations of the broader legal or governmental authority are very small, if not non-existent. Examples of Parochial Political Culture

When distributing social assistance from the community, there was a poor person who did not receive it. The resident then filed a complaint to the social assistance officer. Even though it is he is not recorded because his family files are incomplete. He was also reluctant to take care of it in a government office.

When the regional elections took place there was a citizen who decided to abstain or not give his rights. The reasons are many, some are busy working, don't know the candidate, so they are lazy to go to the TPS. However, when there was an assistance program from the Governor, that person got it.

There is a poor villager who is stricken with illness. He doesn't want to make a health card, which is a government program. Even though this program can alleviate and help cure it. But that person is lazy to apply and register for the program.

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