The Role of Political Parties and Effect of Political System in The United States, India and China - Research Paper Example

Cultural Anthropology: The Role of Political Parties and affect of Political System in United States, India and China Introduction The countries selected in this assignment for comparing and evaluating the political systems and parties in three different countries. In case of United States of America, it is a two party system and in India is a multi party system. However, the case of China is a Communist country with a single party. Hence, the observation starts with a political system of a single party, passes on through the system of two parties and then to that of a multi party democracy. Two democratic countries and a communist country are taken here to analyze the cultural aspects in an anthropologist’s view. For example, the political system in India is quite complex as there are two different types of parties. The first type is national parties and the second type is regional parties. The national parties have recognition all over the country while the regional parties are confined to particular states. The system thrives in India due to its diversity in languages, religions as well as cultures. However, in case of United States, there are only two parties, which have national presence and have recognition in all the states in the country. In contrast to above two, China has a single party, which is communist party that allows only elections within the party. As a result the election of the leaders will be different in China from those of US and India. Moreover, even the election process in US and India is different as the former is presidential type of democracy and the later is parliamentary type (Finance.indamart.com, 2009). Anthropological View of Political System in US The political system is based on freedom and liberty, which resulted by fighting with colonial governments to get freedom. After that, the political system resulted in abolition of slavery and for that the northern people fought with southerners to make them agree for abolition of slavery and that resulted in industrial revolution. However, in the third stage, the political system waged cold war against the communist regime in USSR and other parts in the world as they are against the capitalist regime in America. In this context, even anthropologist is forced to participate in US military on the name of patriotism. As in the above context, the military strategies are mixed with political strategies in United States that help in foreign policy. Whatever policy may prevail, the two party political systems in US remained intact and helped in achieving ethical obligation to protect the rights of the people. However, the understanding of political system as a social organization and cultural change in United States tells us that though there is social and cultural change, the political system did not change and moreover it had protected and used the changes according to the needs of the people. However, the two party political systems resulted in limited options for the diversified primitive bands, which oppose the social basis of other social groups. Consequently, the political system supported by majority has prevailed over the primitive bands, though their intentions are least valued. It created even jurisdictional vacuum and concluded in misrepresentation for some sections of people. Wax, Dustin (2008) quotes Pinkoski, who talked about the economic and social basis of primitive bands that found difficult to adjust in the political system of United States as they are politically autonomous and are not willing to lose identity a well as their social organization due to a new political system. Wax, Dustin also included the work of Susan Sperling that focuses on the way administrators of either party behave when they are in power, which is a result of the thought of safety of American people as well as the compulsions of cold war. According to Sperling’s work included by Wax Dustin (2008), there is resurgence of governmental attempts to manipulate scientific practice of anthropology and that continued irrespective of being any party in power. Hence, one can understand that the political system in US resulted in a strong stand regarding policies by both the parties and codified under patriotism and nationalism. In the chapter contributed by David Price the basic aspect of the American political system is anti communist and encouraged the development of private properties resulting in a social system that contains industrialists and business men as well as employees. The political system in US further resulted in flourishing of capitalism as an opposite to the communism and tried to express it’s thought to be superior to communism’s abolition of private property. However, the political system in US encouraged democracy as well as the loss of autonomy of villagers to government officials. In other words, the democracy, which is a result of US political system, resulted in more democracy to urban people and loss of autonomy by the rural folk. In the chapter by Eric B. Ross of the book edited by Wax, Dustin (2008), the political system in US according to cultural anthropology can be a context of modernization theory. The modernization supported by political system has sought to place innovation in the hands of market oriented large landowners and that resulted in thriving of industries and resulted in industrial development. As a result of success in modernization and industrialization, the political system in US resulted in a culture of framing policies keeping in view the different countries in world. The above aspect indicates that the political system is a success in American society that resulted in modernization combined with industrialization as well as development of private properties. The consequences of political system has resulted in discussion between humanism and materialism and much to the surprise, one can find both the aspects in US political system. The humanism may be in the case of American people and the materialism is clear in the policies of both the political parties about foreign countries. One more thing is that the people’s influence on the political parties. One can observe that the political parties may have large difference in their foreign policies, but regarding domestic policies, though they may differ, they have large amount of similarities too. Further travel in time resulted in political interference in science has escalated due after 2001 on the name of fight against terrorism. The administrations of both the parties tried to impress the people with their policies and to interfere and manipulate in American science to make it according to their foreign policies. Hence, American culture resulted in hegemony to prevail over other countries as the social system is superior to many countries in the world and even resulted in a strong culture in American society that has good legal framework as well as societal ethics (Wax, Dustin (ed.)2008). Anthropological View of Political System in China As Anthropology means study about the people, the study of political system in a country like China can be a good example of cultural anthropology as there is limited democracy in largest populated country of the world. As only Communist party being in power, the people have limited choice of selecting different people within party in their village, town or city. This type of political system results in limited choice for the people as they can only select the persons, but cannot have choice to reject the policies of a particular party as there is no chance have a different party in the country. However, the political system in China has resulted in being tune with majority of people’s views and needs, the system thriving since revolution. As Anthropology studies the human culture, the cultural anthropology of a political system studies about the human culture developed due to the political system in a country. Hence, the political culture inculcated by the political system in a society can be termed as cultural anthropological study of political system. As anthropology includes the study of origins, the consideration of origin of the political system in China is necessary. The origin of the political system in China comes from the fact that the revolutionaries defeated the king and came to power with the support of people, though it is a result of armed revolution. After that if there is any differentiation in the power circles, there would have been a diversified system of political parties. However, there is no such affect in the communist part of China and that remained strong even after years and decades of revolution. The important aspect that is explicit in China’s society due to political system is that the people are finding benefits from the administration, which is part of the political system. As the political system is itself the administration, they are able to frame policies according to people’s needs and in turn the resentment is only in minimum standards as it resulted an economic development after the revolution till date. Gregory Eliyu Guldin (1990) quotes Zhang who thinks psychology and raciology are part of study of cultural anthropology. Hence, in this case it is important to mention the psychological state as well as the raciology of the people (Gregory Eliyu Guldin, 1990). The important aspect that the political system of China includes is that it did not neglect the culture of the people and worked according to their psychology. In addition to that the racial differences in China are few or almost nil though there are cultural and religious differences. Even the religious differences are handled by the political system amicably or forcefully as the political system and administration or not different in the country. The above aspect of political system being administration has shown a lot of affect on preserving the culture as well as to suppress the movements on the name of religion; for example the uprisings from Buddhists and Muslims. As a result, the political system and its actions resulted in a uniform administration all over the China, though there are few cultural differences between some areas of the country. The important aspect that is followed by political system in China is the industrial development as well as the legal system that allowed private companies to work. Hence, the single party political system in China resulted in enacting company laws and enabled the basic provisions of Western corporation law that made people to do business and jobs under a communist administration. This aspect minimized the resentment in the people if any due to single party system as there is growth in economy as well as the infrastructure that is providing basic needs. Even the imperial China as well as Communist China did not have entities similar to Western business corporations. It can be said that the political administration challenged the conventional wisdom though the traditional family law is performing many functions that are performed by American corporation law performs today. Hence, the political system preserved the culture by differentiating between family and the corporation and resulted in development of ‘clan corporations’ and enabled the entrepreneurs to overcome official hostility to profit seeking utilized the legal form of the so called ancestral trust to pool property for investing ostensibly. It means that, due to the legal system in country the political system as well as the administration created an atmosphere of profit seeking within the principles of family and communes. As a result, a mixed system that does business with western type of laws and follows the culture of the country has formed and the above aspect can be mentioned as an important cultural anthropological affect of the political system in China (Ruskola, Teemu, 2000). Anthropological View of Political System in India In case of India, the political system is multi party and the democracy is parliamentary unlike the presidential type in United States of America. The multi party political system can be justified due to the diversity observed in India, regarding religion, cultures, languages and castes. Due to the multi party political system, each and every community in the country is finding its identity in one or the other political party. However, even there are two aspects inherent in multi party political system as it contains of National parties and Regional parties. Even the presence of two types of parties can give an idea of cultural and religious diversity as regional parties thrive on the cultural, religious, language and caste differences between the people. However, the political system introduced in India after Independence from British in 1947 resulted in adult franchise and resulted in largest democracy in the world as it has largest number of voters than any other democracy. In likeness with the vast number of voters and the diversity between them the political system introduced also thrived with the number of parties increasing every year and that resulted in an era of coalition governments after 1995. Till 1989, the political system in India did not affect the people much except for the voting and differences according to caste and religion, which are present from decades. However, after that the rise of regional parties has changed the mind set of voters and the people thus bringing different governments in states and in the centre resulting in a diversity of administrations as well as the diversity in people. The diversity of religion and culture extended to caste and some caste based political parties were formed having the voter base from a particular caste. Moreover, some people belonging to some castes started voting to some regional parties only, indicating the division along caste lines being official thus leading to the divisions in the society on political lines. As a result, the effect of political system in India is in a divisive manner even in the era of economic reforms that connected India to the global economic system, other than the isolated economic system before 1985. The important aspect that resulted in divisive politics by political parties is the diversity of culture as well as caste system in India that resulted in varied support in different regions even for national parties like Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India(Marxist). The rise of regional parties indicates the divisions in the society, which are reflected in political system. The important aspect in study of effect of political systems in India on people and society is that the affect on the people is reflected in the political system also. Hence, the behavior of political parties in India reflects the diversity in the people according to caste and religion. One can understand the diversity as there are some parties, which work only for the people of a particular religion and try to get their votes and prove existence with the help of that particular section of people. However, apart from the divisions with respect to the political system, the people of different castes and religions live harmoniously except for the political differences, which rise just before elections. Hence, the political system in India, which is a multi party system, resulted in divisions of society as well as political instability. In some regions, particularly rural, the people identify themselves with political parties and divisions are clear in their daily life. Thus it can be termed that the political system in India is consistent in ruling due to the provisions in constitution, but resulted in divisions among people instead of making them united being citizens of a single country. Political parties in the system exploited the cultural, caste, religious diversity in the people for their success in the elections (Embassy of India, 2009). Comparison between three political systems According to study and discussion in this paper, one can understand that the effect of political systems on people as well as the systems themselves is in contrast to each other, though two of the countries are democracies. The important reason for this is that the culture of United States of America is different from that of India, regarding diversity. Though there might be diversity in culture in America, the political system has overcome that and did not reflect that diversity as divisions in the system. However, in the case of India, the cultural, religious and caste based diversities are reflected in political system and vice versa. In contrast to the above two, China has preserved its culture as well as political system along with the western type of business. Hence, one can understand that three types of political systems in three countries have different effects on their societies leading to the development but on different paths in the course of time. In case of United States of America, the basic policy has not been changed from capitalism, but in case of China the political system infused the economic policies of Western countries in the communist system of administration. However, the people in India are affected culturally as well as economically due to the political system as it reflected the divisions in the society instead of removing them. References Finance.indamart.com, 2009, India File: Political System, Retrieved on 30th April 2009 from http://finance.indiamart.com/government_india/political_system.html Wax, Dustin (ed.)2008 Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War: The Influence of Foundations, McCarthyism, and the CIA. London: Pluto. Gregory Eliyu Guldin, 1990, Anthropology in China: defining the discipline, New York, USA: M.E. Sharpe Ruskola, Teemu, 2000, Conceptualizing Corporations and Kinship: Comparative Law and Development Theory in a Chinese Perspective. Stanford Law Review, Vol. 52, No. 6, Pp. 1599-1729 Embassy of India, 2009, Political Structure, Retrieved on 3rh May 2009 from Read More