Culture is regarded as a complex phenomenon which includes knowledge, art, belief, morals, law, custom and other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society. Culture may be said to have composed of two parts, i.e., material culture and non-material culture. Material culture includes all the material and tangible equipments and objects which are made and produced by human beings. On the other hand, non-material equipment and capabilities made and acquired by man in group life are included in non-material culture.
The people of a society share a common human nature like emotional drives, intellectual capacities and moral perspectives. The common human nature expresses itself in the form of certain values, belief and emotional attitudes which are transmitted from one generation to another, though with greater or lesser modifications, and they constitute the general culture of that society. Social relationships are subject to an endless process of transformation, of growth and decay of fusion and separation. Since they are all expressions of human nature, the social relationships of the present are found in germ at least in the past and those of the past survive, if only as relics in the present.
Culture, is therefore, a profound possession that ramifies throughout human life. No matter what aspect or part of society is considered, the presence of a cultural mode of transmission is of paramount importance. Politics is one of the unavoidable circumstances/facts of human existence/relations. Everyone is involved in some fashion at some time in some kind of political system. Each political system is embedded in a sociological and psychological environment- the set of values, beliefs, orientation and attitudes of the people toward politics, i.e., the political culture. The political culture of a society defines the situation in which political action takes place. It provides the subjective orientation to politics. The political culture is of course but one aspect of politics.
However, the political culture encompasses both the political ideals and the operating norms of a polity. Political culture includes not only the attitudes to the politics, political values, ideologies, national character and cultural ethos, but also the style, manner and substantive form of politics. The political culture of a people gives them an orientation towards their polity and its processes. One way to learn about political beliefs is to observe the ways in which political structure operates. These beliefs affect and are affected by the way in which the structures operate and there is a close circle of relationship between culture and structure. Political culture is thus the manifestation in aggregate form of the psychological and subjective dimensions of politics. A political culture is the product of both the collective history of a political system and the life histories of the members of that system. In brief, political culture is to the political system what culture is to the social system.
i) Orientations of problem solving.
ii) Orientations to collective action.
iii) Orientations to the political system and
iv) Orientations to other people.