POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

The development of political socialization is the process by which people come to acquire political attitudes and values. Socialization in childhood has been extensively studied. Children acquire warm feelings towards authority figures that might appear in fairy stories such as that of queens and kings.

It is claimed that political socialization as a concept is somewhat new. Almond and Verba who studied the problems and effects of political socialization on political activities gave serious thinking to this concept. Followings are three main stages of political socialization.

The first stage is when a child begins to realize that there is a world around him. Then, he realizes that outside the family there are more powers. He/she starts living and learning outside family. They put certain demands on the society and recognize authorities, which operate in the society.

Second stage is when one reaches adolescence stage and becomes mature enough to participate in political activities.

Third stage is when either he/she begins to love or hate surrounding political institutions and systems. At this stage, values and attitudes become clear.

It should be noted that sociologists have been more interested in how people related to groups and society, social psychologists have been interested in how individuals learn about and adjust to the demands of groups and society, and anthropologists have been interested in how people learn about their culture.

What is meaning of political socialization? Political socialization is a process that takes place in every society. This process begins very early in life and is a continuous process. Generally, the main aim of political socialization is to create good citizens.

Political socialization is the process by which individuals learn about politics and that factor can shape political culture.

Political socialization is an attempt to train people to do what the system requires in values, norms, information and skills that are considered desirable and useful in the society.

Almond and Verba defined political socialization as a process by which political cultures are maintained and changed… Followings are some of the important types of political socialization.

1)- Manifest socialization: Certain values and feelings towards a political system are directly expressed. There is an explicit communication of information to other parties e.g. formal education given in educational institutions, talk on electronic and mass media about political problems, and use of platform for audience. Such a manifestation can be both voluntary and involuntary. It includes all types of propaganda. It is not necessary that such a manifestation will be for the maintenance or stability of political system, rather it can be for instability, change and even revolution.

2)- Latent manifestation: There is no direct approach to the problems, and that ideas are transmitted indirectly. It is a method of transmission of non-political attitudes, which effect analogous roles and objects in the political system.

3)- Particularistic socialization: Political ideas of individuals are directed towards a particular value, which they are required to adhere and appreciate. Thus, all political energies are directed in that direction alone.

4)- Universalistic socialization: Here, political energies are not directed in one direction, but a cosmopolitan outlook is developed. One then can learn and perform several roles. Such roles can be in any walk of life.

5)- Affective socialization: Stress in only on emotional values. There is a very little role of rationality. The values get changed with the changes of emotions and as such there is no much of stability.

6)- Pragmatic socialization: In this type of socialization, stress is not on emotions, but on reasoning. The whole approach is pragmatic and all strategies are quite well planned and calculated and their good or bad effects are well understood.  

Well, the process of political socialization is to create a nominal interest among the people, to inculcate value, discipline, and teaches people to become obedient, and to inculcate some lofty values. Political socialization acquired at three levels --- cognitive, emotive, and evaluative.

What are the agents of political socialization? Agents of political socialization are family, education, peer groups, religion, and nature of work place, mass media, social institutions, government, community, political parties, and secondary groups.

Family: It is the first important agent of political socialization. Each members of family influence the ideas of children in a particular way. In the family child learns to live in discipline. It is in the family that the potential citizen first becomes aware of power relationship and can experience authority in several contexts. If one is associated in decision-making process at the family level, his/her capacity to take political decisions can also increase at other higher levels of the society.

In fact, children can be influenced by the attitudes of family members towards politics. There is a similarity in family and society in that political leaders listen to the demands of workers only when workers start demonstration. In a similar way, a family at first might not listen to the views of its children, and when children start crying, then family may take serious attention.  

Education: After family, education is another important agent of socialization at political level. Different educational institutions bring up different personalities in a society e.g. worldwide known universities produce worldwide known figures, say people like former American president (Bill Clinton), former British Prime Minister (Toney Blair), and former Pakistani Prime Minister (Binazir Bhutto) all studied at Oxford.  

In fact, education is so vital that every government tries to exercise control over its entire educational system. Educational system goes a long way in political socialization process. In authoritarian societies a particular type of education is imparted so that the kids from very childhood imbibe a particular type of political philosophy. The type of political ideology that a teacher imparts also helps the process of political socialization. A teacher can help in the creation of new values and ideas. History tells us that many student union leaders in their subsequent life had become political leaders e.g. Yaser Arafat.

Peer groups: These groups work outside the educational institutions. It is in such groups that because of no hierarchy, and equality in age and status free discussion on political matters can take place.

Religion: In developing societies particularly those, which are theocracies like the Islamic Republic of Iran, religion plays a vital role in the process of political socialization. The people easily can be influenced by the views of religious leaders over political issues.

Work place & nature of employment: It is about manner of job and kind of job one gets and participation in the decision-making process, etc. All such factors combined together go a long way in political socialization process. It is here that one can learn about strike, bargaining, trade union, etc.  

Mass media: It goes without saying that in modern societies all are influenced in socialization process by mass media, may that be press or electronic media or platform. In many cases, political views can be formed on the basis of newspapers and media reports, that is why, each and every government controls its own media, simply because, media can have a deep influence.

Social institutions: This particularly happens in a multi-racial and multi-caste society like India, where each institution tries to politically influence its members.

Role of government: Every government has its own ideology and so tries to win the side of its subjects.

Role of community:  A child who happens to born in an elite or upper class society inherits several advantages including political power and privileges. But, the same story may not be true with others. 

Political parties: They can play an important role both in democratic and semi-democratic states.

Secondary groups: This is the last but not the least factor. These groups are both manifest and latent. They are manifest in the sense that political parties or leaders openly propagate and organize meetings. They are latent in the senses that indirectly propagate a particular political philosophy.

What is the importance of political socialization for the political system? David Easton says that political socialization creates a reservoir of support for political system. He further adds that political system is a set of human interactions in which authoritative allocation of values take place. In political system we have input, output, adaptation, and maintenance. Political socialization is the adaptation and maintenance function of political system. Political socialization is interested in maintaining the status quo. The whole exercise of political socialization is to exercise order and stability, and normally political socialization is a pro-stable process.

Citizens are trained to believe that political system is good and responsive. Reservoir of support ensures non-active and supportive citizens. Political socialization brings changes in public opinion. It helps in the creation of political culture and modifies that to the changing needs.

What is the relationship between political culture & political socialization? Both are closely linked and connected with each other. Political socialization maintains and transforms political culture of a group. It maintains political culture by successfully transmitting it from an old generation to a new one. The process of political socialization in every society involves a combination of three tasks of maintaining, transforming, and creating a new political culture. How we develop political culture in fact is a process called political socialization. In brief, it is difficult to separate political socialization from political culture.