ZANU-PF. Speaking up against the government is taken as speaking up against ZANU-PF. Such is the extent of the parochial cultures in much of Zimbabwe including the urban centres. A critical cog in the dominant parochial culture in Zimbabwe is the concentration of powers in a few people who have legal/legitimate and political power to influence the important arms of government, including the agenda of parliament, and the decisions of the courts are often abused. The law is used as a tool for intimidation of dissenting voices and simultaneously protecting ZANU-PF supporters whose crimes are often conveniently and ambiguously presented and defended as having been done for the furtherance of ZANU-PF interest. Some participants gave the example of ZANU-PF rallies where both primary and secondary school children are forced to abandon their school work and attend ostensibly because the “president is coming”. The village headmen, “MaSabhuku”, are also part of the system. They call all villagers to attend village meetings where the ZANU chair addresses and whips people into line, thereby fostering a culture of suspicion and distrust. In some areas, people are made to attend ZANUPF rallies and political meetings daily where they are reminded of the liberation war, the violence of the 2008 election, and are “warned” that what happened to others during those days will happen to them if they do not vote for ZANU-PF. At such meetings, residents are constantly being reminded that election observers only observe during elections and not before or after the elections. Effectively, residents are constantly being told that they have no recourse against ZANU-PF aggression. The net effect of the conveniently created and deployed ambiguities between ZANU-PF and the government as well as the constant reminders of the liberation war and electoral violence is to discourage people from taking risks by thus actively cultivating risk aversion amongst the people. Participants concurred that political cultures have a clear and central role in shaping risk taking behaviour of the citizens. Part of the configuration of the political cultures in Zimbabwe is the how inter and intra-party conflict manifests in the public domain. Within ZANU-PF, the Gamatox (Weevils) clash resulted in high level casualties and many people lost their positions in and outside the party simply because they were fingered as belonging to the losing faction. Factionalism has also crept into the main opposition party the MDC. As noted by one respondent, most of the leading figures during the formation of the MDC have gone on to form their own splinter parties, leaving the MDC because of factionalism. Essentially, the idea of having one unified ZANU-PF and one unified opposition is vanishing by the day as the key figures in the political parties fight over positions decisions. These leading figures are the few that can claim to be true participants within their own parties with the rest being subject to the decisions made in the higher offices. In discussing governance issues, ordinary members only follow the official party position. Risk aversion among the ordinary people can thus, be seen as coming from fear of being labelled “traitor” “Gamatox” among other terms used to describe people opposing the party’ stance. The parochial culture is now being forced on school children who are forced to recite the “National Pledge” without any consultation of their parents. For some respondents, risk taking behaviour is contextual and there is a need to look at factors that are active at the local level. According to this view, Zimbabwe has a concoction of all the three main types of political cultures and each town/centre has its own culture depending on the how the dialectics of political power differentials between ZANU-PF and the opposition are expressed and how locals navigate them. At the national level, there are elements of the participant sub-culture: for example, parliamentary portfolio committees that make some attempt to consult the people even though they are not entirely transparent. The 21