1.4 Political Socialization

I. Definition: process in which people acquire their political beliefs

II. Agents

A. Family

1. Strongest agent

2. Correlation between parent’s party affiliation and child’s party affiliation.

3. Less of a correlation on civil liberties and racial issues

4. Fairly equal influence of mother and father

5. When parents differ, child tends to associate with the beliefs of parent he/she more closely identifies.

B. Schools

1. Impacts most in basic values such as civic duty, patriotism, etc.

2. High school government classes apparently do not change the political orientation of students.

3. College students tend to be more liberal than the general population.

4. College students at most prestigious schools tend to be the most liberal.

C. Religion

1. Protestant

a. Generally more conservative.

b. Evangelicals are especially more conservative on social issues.

2. Catholic

a. Traditionally more liberal

b. With greater acceptance of Catholics, greater inclusion into mainstream of society, and increasing importance of various social issues (such as abortion, gay rights) this has brought about a greater degree of conservatism.  However, the election of 2004 was the first in which Catholics voted more for the Republican candidate.

3. Jewish

a. Strong liberal influence; strong support of the Democratic Party (~ 80%).

D. Race

1. Whites: more conservative, greater support for Republicans

2. African Americans: more liberal, strongest supporter of the Democratic Party (typically > 90% in recent presidential elections).

3. Hispanics: Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans more liberal and supportive of Democrats; whereas Cubans are more conservative and supportive of the Republicans.  (Bush 43 made significant gains winning 44% of the Hispanic vote in 2004).

4. Asians: lean liberal; won by the Democrats in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

E. Income: those with higher incomes → more conservative and supportive of Republicans, those with lower incomes → more liberal and supportive of Democrats

F. Mass Media

G. Gender

1. “Year of the Woman” in 1992: many more women elected to Congress

2. Gender-sensitive issues (abortion, pornography, gun control etc.) may provoke different views amongst the sexes.

3. Significant gender gap in recent years, but narrowed in 2004. (Bush won 48% of the female vote to Kerry’s 51%, Clinton won close to 60% in 1996)  Bush’s stronger showing may be due to “security moms” who were concerned about terrorism and national security.

III.Cross pressure: conflicting elements within one’s own political socialization (i.e. an African American Woman who is protestant…)