Title: Unstable pollical Culture and Democracy in Nigeria
Authors: Irash John Iratishe
Volume: 10
Issue: 7
Pages: 129-135
Publication Date: 2026/07/28
Abstract:
Political culture is a set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political process and which also provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behaviors in political system. Unstable Political culture is a great setback and affects political growth in Nigeria because of the inconsistency in the political culture which is as a result of some anti-democratic tendencies which hampers the growth democracy in Nigeria. The unstable negative political behaviour is a serious threat to the democracy and democratic consolidation in Nigeria. The continue violation of the electoral act and 1999 constitution as amended during elections in Nigeria is great set back to the nascent democracy. The primary objective of the study is to examine the effect of unstable political culture on democratic consolidation in Nigeria. The study adopted civic culture theory by Almond Gabriel and Sidney Verba as its theoretical framework. Qualitative research design was used using secondary sources of data and content analysis was used to analyse the data. Some of the findings revealed that factors responsible some of the factors responsible for unstable political culture includes parochialism, patronage and corruption and elite domination. Also, there is relationship between political culture and democratic governance, and the impact of political instability on democratic consolidation arising from poor governance and economic inequality. The study recommended collective fight against corruption, political instability and unstable political culture.