Political Cultures Behind Politics.

A political system in a country is influenced by and embedded in the country's political culture. Political culture is the broad set of values and ways in politics. Many times, these are based on traditions, beliefs, attitudes, and other things that form the overall culture or cultures in a country. That means that the political culture cuts across political parties, although there can be specific forms that belong more to one party than another. In any case, it is important for political parties to behave in such ways that are appreciated by people, especially those who are their voters and sympathisers. The opposite can also be the case, namely that people dislike the ways politicians behave, what issues they discuss and the decisions they make. However, politicians depend on the people's and voters' interest and support for their work. Lack of it, indeed lack of trust, is feared by the politicians.

In a young democracy, like Pakistan, the political culture is still being shaped, more so than in older democracies, such as Norway, my country of origin, and the UK, the country whose political system is certainly a model for many countries, also Pakistan; neighbouring India has a similar history, but it is at the same time on its own path. The traditions of other countries, such as the superpower USA, are different and do not in the same way form a model for Pakistan. China, the most important country in Asia, and soon the world's largest economy, has an entirely different political tradition than the Western democracies.

Until now, few countries have tried to learn from China's political tradition, which may however be difficult if one is not Chinese. Yet, many countries around the world admire China's economic growth and the uplift of millions of people, away from poverty into prosperity. In future, I believe that we will look more to China and draw lessons when possible, and probably also focus less on negative aspects of its development and the lack of democratic participation. Since the West sees China as a challenge and competitor to its economic and other leadership, there will still be plenty of criticism.

Russia is the largest country in the world in land size; its natural resources are massive, but the land is sparsely populated with a total of 145 million people. Some time in future, Russia will (again) be a superpower, as it was seen as during the Soviet Area (1917-1989/91), and even earlier during the Tsar's rule. But Russia has...