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Changing Perspectives on Political Socialization

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Abstract

The history of the field has been marked by four transformations in dominant conceptualizations of its subject matter and appropriate methodologies (paradigms). Initial research focused on pre-adult learning and its enduring influence. This line of investigation subsequently was abandoned in favor of a concern with the adoption of political orientations during late adolescence and early adulthood when, it was maintained, individuals are particularly likely to form their lasting political views. In turn, this approach was replaced by studies exploring the adoption of particular dispositions at certain life stages such as radicalism in youth and conservatism in later years. This focus gave way to a view that political dispositions have an approximately uniform potential for change at all ages. Paradigm shifts often were the result of misunderstanding and misrepresentation of existing studies. The model of political socialization developed in this and in the following chapters draws on selected assumptions, concepts, and hypotheses associated with each of the four paradigms. Some features of the various perspectives will be treated as supplementary rather than as contradictory principles. A model is developed which offers a view of the political socialization processes over the individual’s entire lifetime.

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  1. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

    Philo C. Wasburn

  2. Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, USA

    Tawnya J. Adkins Covert

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Wasburn, P.C., Adkins Covert, T.J. (2017). Changing Perspectives on Political Socialization. In: Making Citizens. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50243-4_1

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