Political Socialization

POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION IS the learning and internalization of information, beliefs, values, and sentiments that are available in the polity surrounding the individual. Through the internalization of cultural principles, the individual learns politically relevant knowledge and values and is thereby equipped to reproduce the political culture through subsequent behavior. Because political cultures change, not all socialization results in the complete reproduction of political cultural values. To a greater or lesser extent, socialized agents may amend, modify, reinterpret, or reject the cultural cues to which they are exposed. Those engaged in political socialization may experience role confusion or role ambiguity resulting from their exposure to competing role models.

While political socialization during childhood is primary, it is a process that continues throughout a person's life, and the impact of the social environment is constantly in play. A pattern of political socialization is more likely to endure if it is established and continues in a time of relative political stability. Conversely, times of sociopolitical upheaval may well prompt turbulence in political socialization. The historical record is replete with instances of large groups of people undertaking a deliberate re-evaluation of dominant cultural or ideological forces during a relatively short period of time.

The process of acquisition incorporates many socio-psychological steps. In the context of the immediate family, children learn both though imitation, notably that which is rewarded, and through identification, which is a more developed process of internalizing the ideas and values of significant others. Political learning can be indirect, such as learning a generic sense of trust in authority figures, or a sense of autonomy and creativity in one's own agency. Political learning becomes more direct as the child grows in the more elementary forms of political knowledge. Reproducing political [Page 524]consent is the principal effect of political socialization. Beginning in early childhood, political socialization consists of those natural practices through which people impart knowledge, emotional reaction, values, and opinions about political matters to those within their sphere of influence. Routine patterns of political socialization in liberal democracies encourage political participation and the expectation that citizens mobilize at election time.

Socialization is never entirely a one-way process, and it does not always go smoothly. Although it is concentrated in the early years of a person's life, it is never entirely complete. It is possible to think of the process of socialization as one of induction or even indoctrination, in which the agencies of socialization, such as parents, school, peers, and media, tell the person being socialized what to believe. While agents of socialization can exert a great deal of influence, they are never entirely successful. The person being socialized can always talk back, disagree, refuse the message, or even socialize the socializer. Cultural communication, even between unequals, is mutual.

Although what is learned early in life may not persist, a great deal of the deeper learning of dispositions and values can be regarded as durable, if not entirely continuous. Learning specific information or political reasoning and political choice does emerge later. While early studies in political socialization concentrated on children in the elementary school system, later studies came to regard the high school and young adult years as more critical to political formation. If the young child has learned some basic indirect tools for political involvement, and as an adolescent has acquired some elementary political information and values, it is entry into adulthood that is most relevant to political learning.

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