Political culture in the Republic of Moldova is in a period of transition, from subordinating to participatory one. This is one of the opinions stated by experts invited to IPN’s public debate “Political culture at local and European levels: contexts and examples”.

“Political culture, as I understand it, but actually as it is defined, is that set of norms, values, knowledge, attitudes, behaviors that define the relationship between the citizen and the state. It is the way in which the citizens interact with the authorities. To characterize the current political culture in the Republic of Moldova, I can say that we are at the stage of transition from subordinating political culture to participatory one. I think we evolved a lot during these 30 years of independence, but we have yet a lot of work to do. In general, we follow the correct path and go towards participatory political culture,” said Olga Manole, project coordinator at Promo-LEX Association.

Ex-Deputy Speaker of Parliament Iurie Țap, ex-mayor of Florești, said that he is slightly more pessimistic about this. Moldovan society tends to participatory political culture, but subordinating and parochial political cultures prevail.

“They are interwoven. I say this because while being engaged in activities at the central level, at the level of the central political elite, the Parliament, the government, the central and local public authorities, I saw that this level is very low. The state of political culture or the current state of affairs comes from here,” stated Iurie Țap, noting that “we cannot be angry with the citizens when this culture is absent in the central or national elite that should promote it and should stimulate the citizens to embrace it by what they do. We are at an incipient stage and this is actually the main danger to the future of the Republic of Moldova.”

Political scientist Cornel Ciurea said political culture is a rather vague concept. “Usually, all kinds of analyses center on the identification of the dominant model in the idea that civic culture or participatory culture for democratic systems is a major one and it should be cultivated in society by different ways and a lot of projects promoted by civil society to imbed participatory political culture among the population derive from here,” he said. According to the expert, ‘participatory’ doesn’t mean that someone is permanently in the middle of the events and acts on their own to help the state. Most of the times, the people stay at home, but in particular situations they feel eager to become involved.

The public debate entitled “Political culture at local and European levels: contexts and examples” was the third installment of the series “Stimulation of discussion in the mass media about traditional particularities of local elections and the need for Europeanization” that is staged by IPN News Agency with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.