I. What is political behavior?

Transcription

1 Political Socialization I. What is political behavior? II. Political socialization. A. How our orientations are shaped. Primacy principle. Structuring principle. B. Socialization over the life cycle. C. Relationship between socialization and the concept of legitimacy. D. Cynicism. E. Agents of political socialization Changes in contemporary political context that affect the impacts of socializing agents. Political impacts of these changes.

2 Political socialization: The way in which individuals acquire the information, beliefs, attitudes, and values that help them comprehend the operations of the American political system and orient themselves within it.

3 Explanations of political socialization Primacy principle What is learned first is learned best. Structuring principle What is learned first structures later learning.

4 Agents of Political Socialization Family Schools Communications media Peer groups Secondary groups

5 Percent of Potential Television Audience Watching One of 3 Major Networks in Prime Time, % Network Share 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Year SOURCE: Nielsen Media Research

6 Impacts of changing socialization patterns Decline in the number of Americans who identify meaningfully with either the Democratic or Republican Party More split-ticket voting Greater frequency of divided government More non-voting More third party candidates Rise in political cynicism and disaffection

7 Trust in government SOURCE: Gallup Polls; Percent who answered Always or Most of the time to the question, Do you trust the government in Washington to do what is right?

8 Political Efficacy Year Officials Don't Care I have no say Run by big interests SOURCE: Prepared from American National Election Studies data. Data indicate the percentage of respondents agreeing with the following statements: Public officials don t care what people like me think, People like me don't have any say about what the government does, and The government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves.

9 Political Participation Political Participation A. Forms of participation 1. Voting 2. Campaign activity 3. Personal contacting 4. Cooperative activity 5. Unconventional participation 6. Nonparticipation B. New research on time and money as participation resources. How is the character of American politics and policy affected by socialization and participation patterns?

10 Youth Vote by Partisanship, 2006

11 Age and Political Participation, & older Age Voted in 1996 Persuaded others Wore button or bumper sticker Attended campaign rallies Worked for party/candidate Contributed money SOURCE: American National Election Studies

12 The Aging of the Population SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census; 2050 data are estimates

13 20th Century Expansions of Suffrage 19th amendment (ratified 1920) gave women the right to vote in national elections 24th amendment (ratified 1964) eliminated the poll tax 26th amendment (ratified 1971) lowered voting age to 18 Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacy tests and knocked down most of the other impediments to voting for black Americans. Liberalized registration laws. Same day registration in states like Maine. National motor-voter registration law (1993)

14 Turnout in Elections for President and House of Representatives, SOURCE: Constructed from U.S. Census Bureau data.

15 Mean Percentage of Citizens Voting in Legislative Elections,

16 Conundrum: Higher Education, Lower Turnout SOURCE: Kenneth Janda et al., The Challenge of Democracy (Houghton Mifflin, 2008), p. 218.

17 The Youth Vote SOURCE: The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (

18 Competition in U.S. House Districts in the 1990 s 12% of all races were uncontested (only one major party candidate) In 85% of the contested races, one candidate had a margin of victory greater than 20% of the total vote In only 13% of all House races in the 1990 s s was the winner s s margin of victory less than 10% of the total vote

19 Competitiveness in 2004 House Elections SOURCE:

20 Citizens Making Political Contributions, U.S. population (11/2002) = 288,491,797 Donors giving $200 or more = 639,604 (0.22%) Donors giving $1000 or more = 251,779 (0.09%) SOURCE:

21 Citizens Active in Various Forms of Political Participation, 2004 SOURCE: American National Election Studies