Political socialisation is the process towards the individual learns and starts to grasp the political and social system in which he is a part of and he has to deal with. (Greenberg, 1970, pp. 3-4)
Some scholars have been theorized two approaches to the theory of political socialisation: Primacy and Recency approach.
In this essay I will look into the two approaches and the factors which influence people political orientation such as religion, gender and race. Then I will focus on my personal political socialisation. Indeed since I was a child, I have been always interested within politics, which was steadily present in most of the familiar conversation. Therefore in my experience I have been extremely influenced by my family and my father
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(Hyman cited in Shiraev and Sobel, 2006, pp 94-95). Basically when we are child we are much more reactive to external stimuli. For instance a child can easily learn a foreign language. So children are deeply influenced by who is around them. That means that their political or religion prospective is strongly conditioned by his parents, friends, teachers and so on. Glass argues that the relationship between parents and siblings is the primary influence to the political develop of the child. (Glass, Bengtson and Dunham, 1986, pp 685-687.) The argument which is brought up by primacy theorist is that what we learn as a child, It will be something long …show more content…
As a result Zaller explains that if we learn something during the adult life, its impact will be greater to our personality. (cited in Shiraev and Sobel, 2006, pp 94) Therefore what we learn from our experiences, It can deeply effect our personality, more than what we acquire during the childhood. It means a re-socialization of what we learnt in our childhood, such as values and beliefs. Many factors can change your orientation such as ethnicity, teachers or friends.
I am inclined to believe that in developing my personal political orientation, I have not been influenced by some factors such as religion and gender.
Firstly as far as I am concerned, I think a democratic state has to be laic and It cannot deal with any religious rules. A country cannot be based on clerical laws. Despite many countries are managed by a theocratic government.
Secondly a person, who is going to run the country, must be elected for his or her capacity and not for being a man or a woman. Even if many women were important figures within the political panorama such as Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, who said that “in politics if you want anything said ask a man, want anything done ask a woman” (Cited in Swatridge, 2014, pp
127). This point is the first of emphasized three that seems worthy of its own chapter. While still maintaining that Americans are not polarized, Fiorina et al. give concessions to the opposition, recognizing their own speculation (p. 133). In addition to this, the authors included an appendix immediately after the chapter to clarify their charts. Although slightly different, this is reminiscent of the early chapters. The authors have rediscovered their confidence that had faltered in the two previous arguments. No longer relying on misrepresentations to paint a prettier picture, the authors instead trust in themselves enough to admit supposition and then defend it. Before getting into that, the authors begin by explaining that many scholars have identified a correlation between religion and voter identification (p. 128). What Fiorina et al. argue is that specific religions are not an indicator of specific political identification. Instead, they claim that it is the commitment of an individual to their religion, regardless of denomination, is the determining factor. This important distinction provides the authors with a base on which to build their
Political socialization begins early on in life and is an ongoing process affecting individuals throughout. It is how people eventually identify personal beliefs and expectations in American politics. These political views can include our level of patriotism, faith in the democratic system, standards by which we hold governing bodies, and opinions regarding public policies. From the playground to the classroom, the office to the dinner table, much of our lives affect our political opinions. The most easily identified agents of this are family, schooling, peers, mass media, political parties and religious influences. Furthermore, these means indoctrinate us in the political society through four basic
Discuss the factors that contribute to political socialization. Of these factors, which ones do you believe are the most influential over your own political socialization? Explain why by citing specific examples.
Most people are exposed to the same principals and agents of political socialization. Families spread values that support political authorities and can heavily contribute to children's initial political ideological views, or party preferences. Families influence political knowledge and identification depending on variables such as family demographics, life cycle, parenting style, parental level of political skepticism and frequency of political discussions. Demographics such as gender and age also attribute to political socialization. School is another agent of political socialization. Spending numerous years in school, children in the United States are taught and reinforced a view of the world that their text books tell them to trust. Through primary, secondary and high schools, students are taught key principles such as individual rights and property, personal responsibility and duty to their nation. Another is mass media. Mass media is not only a source of political information; it is an influence on political values and beliefs. Various media outlets, through news coverage and late-night programs, provide different partisan policy stances that are associated with political participation. Religions, beliefs, and practices play a role in political opinion formation and political participation. The perspective offered by religious institutions shape judgement regarding public policy, and political decision
Have you ever thought about why you have the political beliefs and values you do? Where did they come from? Are they simply your own ideas and experiences or have you been influenced by others in your thinking? This process by which individuals acquire their political beliefs and attitudes is called political socialization. In another words, Political socialization is a concept where the study of the developmental processes by which children and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes and behaviors. What people think and how they come to think it is of critical importance to the stability of the government. The beliefs and values of the people are the basis for a society's political culture and that culture defines the
We all want to believe that our individual personalities and beliefs are a result of our personal choices and experiences. However, this isn't entirely true. As much as many of us would hate to admit, we are greatly influenced by the choices of our parents and the major events in their lives that shaped them. As children, we internalize our parents’ words, actions and beliefs. By the time we are adults, these values have already been integrated into our own on a subconscious level.
A person’s ideology is influenced by their socialisation, mine was heavily influenced by my family.
A lot of things have played a role in my personal political socialization. Political ideology is the places where you have informed your beliefs from. The first example of where I get my personal political socialization is from my family. Second I have influence from my location in the U.S.A. Finally I get influence from Narragansett High School which is the school I currently attend. That is where I received my personal political socialization from.
The novels, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell, each setup societies in which the government has almost complete control of the people. One of the most effective ways of gaining the loyalty of a society is to gain the loyalty of the youth. In Brave New World, the government does this by raising the children itself. Children are produced by the government and spend their young lives learning by hypnopædia, or sleep-teaching. On the other hand, in 1984, children are still raised by their parents, but they are taught by the government to distrust them. Overall, in both novels the children are cultivated by the government to be their ideal citizens, but while Brave New World does this by making sure that they have a direct and single line to the child’s mind, in 1984 they instead influence the children that loyalty to the government is the best possible choice rather than thinking for themselves, and in the end, it is shown that both of these processes are effective.
The most adequate of women are being scared away from the political race because of the sexist attacks against women in government. The most suitable women look at past candidates and witness the attacks on them and choose to avoid the political
The environment has had some influence on my political beliefs. Of course living in a democratic society I have many democratic views, from the right to vote to the establishment of human rights. I believe very strongly that a democratic government is the best government. With the abundant amount of information the effect on politics is huge. Since I can find out about politics from all over the world, I can make rational decisions about anything political. This influences me dramatically. Compared to
Many believe that religion is a great factor in the voting process, especially on controversial topics like abortion and homosexuality, which affects the votes immensely. Moreover, the varieties of different religions all have contrasting opinions on numerous issues, which then results in many different conclusions; thus affecting the political votes. Religion, not only is a great aspect in the voting process today, but was also a tremendous political feature in the nineteenth century. Robert P. Sweirenga, author of Ethnoreligious Political Behavior in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, promotes that, “the most exciting development in American history since the 1960’s is the recognition that religion was a key variable in voting behavior.” In the past time and eras before the 1960’s, religion was the main element for solving complex issues, which is why religion was a big part of the political campaigns. Religion has been a part of people’s life style for many years; thus affecting their opinions on controversial topics that are connected with campaigns. In the 1800’s, the church was an influential role in the government and society. Moreover, majority of the people at this time were extremely religious, including the government party, which greatly affected the laws of the country and the votes of the campaigns. In 1832, the political party realized that religion was becoming such a great factor and influence, that they did not allow any Roman Catholics to be a part of the Executive Council until 1840. Even still, after that date, they majority of the government were a part of the church, showing that religion has such a major impact on the influence of voting even still in the twenty-first
In my life I have never had any political enforcement or strict religious influence. My parents were very lenient when it came too political preaching. I was taught to be a caring and respectful individual. My political understanding and beliefs have been molded from my early political memories and socialization experiences. As a young adult I have always strived to become knowledgeable about political ideals mainly because I was never really taught to believe in something specific. I eventually was drawn towards many different social and political perspectives, which is how I came to a logical conclusion of how I view the world politically
Political socialization is a concept that shows the development of children and adolescents who attain political cognition, attitudes, and behaviors. Political socialization routinely begins in children. There are multiple factors that influence the political socialization of citizens. Research theorizes that family and school teachers are the most influential. Recent research also states that media plays an important role on influence as well.
The term ‘politics’ itself has changed over many years. To ask if the evolution of political culture changes how people participate in politics is simple. The answer is yes. To begin with, let’s define political culture; ‘Authors define the term political culture as the particular distribution of patterns of orientation towards political objects among the members of a nation’ (Almond and Verba 1963: 13 cited in Welzel and Inglehart, 2014 p.285). Now let’s define culture; ‘the term culture covers a broad set of phenomena. It includes traditions, habits, and patterns of behaviour shaped by a society’s prevailing beliefs, norms and values’ (Nolan and Lenski, 1999 cited in Welzel and Inglehart, 2014 p.285). Taking this into account, examples of culture could be how to play hopscotch in a playground or following the rules to a game of tennis or badminton. To address the question, this essay will firstly assess how any capable individual is able to participate in politics and secondly if the growth of political culture has increased or decreased participation.