Socialisation

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Socialisation

• Todays lecture will to a significant, but not
  exclusive, extent be based on Rush Politics and
  Society, chapter 5.
• Political socialisation is the process in which
  we become political human beings. The process in
  which we acquire and develop values and opinions,
  which in turn affect our behaviour, such as
  voting.

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Definition of political socialisation

• The process by which individuals in a given
  society become acquainted with the political
  system and which to a significant degree
  determines their perceptions of politics and
  their reactions to political phenomena" (Rush p.
  92).

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Alternative definitions

• Fred Greenstein (cited in Rush, p. 92f)
• Narrow definition "The deliberate inculcation of
  political information, values and practices by
  institutional agents who have been formally
  charged with this responsibility".
• Broad definition "All political learning, formal
  and informal, deliberate and unplanned, at every
  stage of the life cycle, including not only
  explicitly political learning but also nominally
  non-political learning of politically relevant
  characteristics".

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The debate about socialisation

• revolves around what is transmitted into people,
  and whether this really has any proven effect.
• Warning against determinism, and assumptions of
  manipulation from above.
• In actual fact people are subject to a variety of
  influences from different sources, which
  sometimes are conflicting.
• Exactly what it is that forms attitudes, opinions
  and voting has not been conclusively resolved.

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Political culture

• Defined by Almond and Verba as "The Political
  System as Internalised in the cognitions,
  feelings and evaluations of its population" (Rush
  p. 95).

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The Civic Culture (famous book by Almond and
Verba, 1963)

• Political culture determined by three main
  factors
• Awareness of government
• Expectations of government
• Political participation
• Three types of political culture
• Parochial cultures (low awareness, expectations
  and participation) Mexico
• Subject (higher levels of awareness and
  expectation but low participation) Italy, Germany
• Participant (high levels of all three) USA, UK

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Relationship political culture - socialisation

• Political culture is not synonymous with, but a
  product of, political socialisation (Rush, p.
  96).
• This leaves political socialisation to be defined
  more broadly as The means by which individuals
  acquire political knowledge or information,
  political values or basic beliefs, and political
  attitudes or opinions on specific matters.

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Rush, figure 5.1 (p. 97)

• Agents (such as families) trigger
• mechanisms (such as imitation or instruction),
  which take different shapes in different
• stages of human life. This leads to
• perceptions, which in turn lead to
• behaviour. This process is
• continuous. The end effect is reprocessed via
• experience. Thus, old perceptions can be
• reinforced, but it can also lead to
• new perceptions and, in turn,
• changes in behaviour.

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Agents of socialisation

• Institutions. Educational system, military
  (conscription), mass media.
• Peer groups. People who share a level of social
  standing and age (school, work).
• Primary groups. Groups where people have close
  and informal relationships and share the same
  values.
• Secondary groups. Groups where people have formal
  and impersonal relationships (church, parties,
  unions).

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Agents of socialisation

• transmit values and opinions, which are
• received by mechanisms such as imitation,
  instruction, motivation.
• Eventually, these influences form a perceptual
  screen, consisting of knowledge, values,
  attitudes, et c.

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Four central issues in the study of political
socialisation

• What is learnt
• When is it learnt
• How is it learnt
• The possible effect of what is learnt

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The WHAT question (1)

• What do agents of socialisation transmit?
• Recognition of individual authority
• Recognition of distinction between external
  (public police, president etc.) and internal
  (parents, teachers etc) authority
• Recognition of impersonal political authority
  (parliament etc.) and
• Recognition of distinction between institutions
  and the individuals associated with them.
• The above is learnt in stages, where the last is
  the most advanced stage.

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The WHAT question (2)

• In feminist thinking, the emphasis in on
  attitudes on gender relations. How girls are
  taught to behave in a certain way, and how boys
  are taught a different behaviour. These values
  are transmitted via dress codes, toys, and also
  in the way which adults respond to things boys
  and girls do.
• In Marxism, focus is on class structure. Upper
  class attitudes as well as lower class deference
  are transmitted.

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The WHAT question (3)

• Examples of other values that are transmitted via
  socialisation
• Rulers and the ruled.
• Nationalism, national stereotypes.
• When you study politics at a British university,
  you are socialised into democratic thinking.

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The WHEN question (1)

• When does socialisation take place?
• Always, but
• most importantly during childhood and
  adolescence.
• According to David Easton and Robert Hess, the
  most important period is between the ages of 3
  and 13.

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The WHEN question (2)

• Only vague, affective notions about politics and
  political figures are acquired in childhood.
• These notions lead to a set of values, an
  outlook, but do not by any means necessarily
  determine concrete opinions, or allegiances.
  These develop later.
• However, the values acquired during childhood can
  be important in shaping the subsequently formed
  concrete values and opinions.
• It is debated about how important childhood is in
  shaping the values of an individual.
• Also how concrete any effects of childhood
  experiences are.

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The WHEN question (3)

• David Butler and Donald Stokes (in the book
  Political Change in Britain, 1974) speak of a
  political life-cycle in four phases
• 1) Infancy. Innocent of the existence of
  politics.
• 2) Childhood, adolescence, early adulthood.
  Becomes aware of politics.
• 3) Later adult years. Political interest
  increases, attitudes harden.
• 4) Old age. Loyalties remain, but loses interest
  in politics.
• Phases 2 and 3 are the most interesting, because
  they are the phases with political consequences.

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The WHEN question (4)

• Butler and Stokes place heavy emphasis on parent
  to child influence.
• In their research they have found clear evidence
  of effects of parents' interest in politics on
  own interest in politics.
• "A child is very likely indeed to share the
  parents' party preference" (p. 51).
• The reproduction of the parents' partisanship is
  almost photographic to begin with.

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The WHEN question (5)

• It becomes blurred as time goes by, but remains
  easily recognisable.
• Extra-family factors, (social milieu, political
  events) play a role, especially when strength of
  family influence is weak (e.g. when no or mixed
  party preference among parents).
• Homogeneous neighbourhood and family background
  reinforces party attachment.
• Butler Stokes duration of party support, not
  age, strengthens party loyalty. Psychological
  attachments become stronger the longer they are
  held.
• Thus not true that people become conservative as
  they grow older.
• Butler Stokes emphasise stability of
  preferences within generations (age cohorts).
• But they were wrong they predicted an era of
  Labour dominance (book was published in 1974)

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The WHEN question (6)

• Adult socialisation the party member who learns
  some norms as an activist, is resocialised if
  elected an MP, and then again if becoming a
  member of the House of Lords.
• Society perpetuates itself via socialisation, p.
  101. Marxists view this negatively (obstacle to
  societal change), and functionalists positively
  (provides societal stability and equilibrium).

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The HOW question (1)

• How does the learning process take place?
• Via agents of socialisation.
• In some circumstances, the values transmitted by
  different agents are homogenous.
• However, if different agents promote different
  values, it can lead to Cross Pressure.
• Cross pressure could lead to ambivalence,
  inability to make a decision, abstention from
  voting, et cetera.

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The HOW question (2)

• Explicit and implicit socialisation
• Examples of explicit socialisation could be from
  some socialist countries, e.g. China We love
  chairman Mao
• Implicit learning is more common, and in all
  probability, at least as effective. E.g. films in
  Nazi Germany The Eternal Jew (too blunt) The
  Jew Süss (more subtle)

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Relationship socialisation political behaviour
(1)

• Class voting is reinforced by socialisation.
  Butler Stokes found a strong correlation
  between first vote and parents' vote.
• Socialisation is central in the Party
  Identification (Michigan) model of voting. Linked
  to group memberships and family influence.

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Relationship socialisation political behaviour
(2)

• Thus, socialisation can have an effect on
  political behaviour, e.g. who you vote for.
• It can also have an effect on participation
  whether you vote at all, or are politically
  active.
• Central to activity is the concept of political
  efficacy (the extent to which individuals feel
  they are able to exert influence over politics).
• Socialisation is widely seen as a major
  explanation of legitimacy