POLITICAL CULTURE AND POLICY-MAKING: HOW CULTURAL NORMS INFLUENCE GOVERNANCE MODELS

Abstract

Culture significantly shapes the ways societies think about authority, participation, justice, and collective identity, thus influencing political ideologies and institutional design. Gender norms, religious norms, traditional norms, and individual or collective values dictate what is legitimate or acceptable within a political system. These cultural models tend to shape public expectation, prioritize policy, and affect government-citizen engagement. With societies increasingly diverse and interconnected, it becomes harder to develop effective and culturally responsive governance models. A single, universal approach to governance frequently neglects the deeply entrenched cultural values that shape behaviour, political participation, and policy reaction. Familiarity with these cultural factors is thus essential for developing inclusive, responsible, and sustainable governance. This research critically analyses the extent to which cultural values and political culture combine to influence governance outcomes in different sociopolitical settings. Informed by exploratory, empirical, argumentative, and narrative approaches, the research reviews extant literature and utilizes a multidisciplinary frame to evaluate to what extent culturally responsive governance can lead to increased legitimacy, policy effectiveness, and social cohesion. The results emphasize the need to harmonize governance practices with cultural circumstances in order to guarantee not just compliance and stability but also the active engagement of all social groups in the political process.