Political Socialization

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Abstract

How do Japanese people learn about political power? Steel investigates (1) whether parents are socializing their children into identifying with political parties and (2) children’s political orientations. Using a case study conducted in an elementary school, she finds that the development of party identification is more complicated than previous research suggests. She also adds survey data from junior high and high school students. Children do “inherit” party identification from their parents, but as the children age, they seem to reject this early party attachment, before returning to it in adulthood. Moreover, even very young children take their cues from the media. She also finds that while children are not as negative toward politics as early research suggested, children have interesting ambivalence toward figures of authority.

Keywords

Elementary School Prime Minister Political Attitude Party System Liberal Democratic Party 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I conducted this research in collaboration with Katherine Tegtmeyer-Pak. I would like to thank Kushibuchi Eriko and Nagatomi Mari. The project benefited greatly from their research and interviewing skills.

We are deeply indebted to the children, their parents, and the teachers in the school where we conducted our research for giving so freely of their time.

Many thanks to Ken Hijino and Michael Strausz for their incisive comments on this chapter.

I would like to thank Kensuke Wakakura, who conducted the Chiba Prefecture Elementary to High School and Waseda University Student Survey, for sharing these data. I would also like to thank Gento Kato for pointing me to this research.

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Data

  1. Wakai yukensha no Ishiki Chosa [A Survey of Young Voters’ Values](Number 3) (2009). National sample of 16–29 year olds, postal survey (n=2053).Google Scholar
  2. Wakakura, K. (2014). Chiba Ken no Koritsu shochukoko Jidoseito oyobi Waseda Daigaku Gakusei ni Taisuru Shitsumon Chousa. [Survey of Chiba Prefectural Public Schools and Waseda University Students].Google Scholar

Copyright information

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.The Institute for the Liberal ArtsDoshisha UniversityKyotoJapan

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