Political Socialization

Where do your political beliefs come from? The answer is more complicated than “I thought about the issues and made up my mind.”

What Is Political Socialization?

Political socialization is the process through which people develop their political beliefs, values, and behaviors. It starts in childhood and continues throughout life.

Most people don’t choose their political views through rational deliberation. They absorb them from their environment.

Agents of Socialization

Family

The most powerful influence. Children tend to adopt their parents’ party identification and basic political orientations.

Why it matters:

• Children hear political discussions at home
• Parents model political behavior (voting, activism)
• Family transmits broader values that shape politics
• Early attachments are sticky; they’re hard to shake

Research shows party identification is transmitted from parent to child at rates similar to religious affiliation. If your parents are Democrats, you probably are too.

Schools

Both explicitly and implicitly.

Explicit: Civics education, American history, the pledge of allegiance. Schools teach democratic values: tolerance, participation, respect for law.

Implicit: How schools are run teaches lessons about authority, fairness, and participation. Do students have a voice? Are rules applied equally?

Schools generally promote system support rather than critical thinking about politics.

Peers

Increasingly influential as children age.

Social conformity: People adopt views of their social groups. If your friends are all liberal (or conservative), you’ll face pressure to agree.

Social media: Has intensified peer influence. Young people exist in information environments shaped by who they follow.

Peer effects explain why political views often shift in college: new environment, new social group, new influences.

Media

Traditional and social media shape political information and perspectives.

Traditional media: Network news once provided shared information. Now cable news offers ideologically sorted options. Fox News viewers and MSNBC viewers inhabit different political universes.

Social media: Algorithms show you content you’ll engage with, which means content that confirms your existing views. The “filter bubble” may reinforce polarization.

Key concern: Declining trust in media makes it harder to establish shared facts.

Religion

Religious beliefs shape political attitudes, especially on social issues.

Evangelical Protestants: Tend conservative, especially on abortion, same-sex marriage, and religious liberty.

Black Protestants: Tend liberal on economic issues, more conservative on some social issues.

Catholics: Divided. Hispanic Catholics lean Democratic; white Catholics are swing voters.

Secular/Unaffiliated: Strongly Democratic.

Religion doesn’t determine politics, but it correlates strongly with party alignment.

Generational Effects

Events experienced during formative years (roughly 14-24) shape political orientation for life.

Political Generations

Silent Generation (born 1928-1945): Came of age during WWII and early Cold War. Generally more trusting of institutions.

Baby Boomers (1946-1964): Vietnam, civil rights, Watergate. More skeptical of authority. Split between liberals shaped by counterculture and conservatives shaped by reaction against it.

Generation X (1965-1980): Reagan era, end of Cold War. Often described as politically disengaged.

Millennials (1981-1996): 9/11, Iraq War, Great Recession. More diverse, more liberal, less attached to institutions.

Generation Z (1997-2012): COVID-19, George Floyd, climate activism. Early indications suggest even more liberal than Millennials.

Key Events

Major events can reshape political attitudes:

The Depression: Made a generation of Democrats Vietnam/Watergate: Destroyed trust in government Reagan Revolution: Shaped conservative movement 9/11: Temporary surge in trust; long-term security focus Great Recession: Economic anxiety, distrust of institutions Trump presidency: Intense polarization on both sides

Lifecycle Effects

Some political changes come from aging, not generational experience.

Conservative drift: People may become more conservative as they age, acquire property, pay taxes, and have children. (The evidence is mixed.)

Increased participation: Older people vote more than young people. This is partly lifecycle (more stake in outcomes) and partly generational (older cohorts are more civic-minded).

Partisan stability: Party identification tends to strengthen with age. Young voters switch; older voters don’t.

Self-Interest vs. Values

What shapes individual political preferences?

Economic Self-Interest

Simple theory: people vote their wallets.

Reality is more complicated. Many people vote against their apparent economic interest. Low-income white voters support Republicans who cut social programs. Wealthy liberals support tax increases on themselves.

Self-interest matters, but it’s not the whole story.

Values and Identity

Moral values: Conservatives emphasize loyalty, authority, and purity. Liberals emphasize care and fairness.

Identity: Racial, religious, and cultural identities shape political alignment. White evangelical identity predicts Republican voting better than policy preferences.

Symbolic politics: People respond to symbols and rhetoric, not just material outcomes.

Changes in American Political Culture

Declining Trust

Trust in government peaked around 1960 (about 75% trusted government “most of the time”). It’s now around 20%.

Causes include:

• Vietnam and Watergate
• Economic stagnation
• Partisan conflict
• Media negativity
• Actual government failures

Increasing Polarization

Americans are more sorted by party than ever. Democrats and Republicans increasingly:

• Live in different places
• Consume different media
• Have different friends
• Hold different values

This sorting makes compromise harder and politics more tribal.

Declining Social Capital

Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone documented declining participation in civic organizations: churches, clubs, unions, PTAs. This matters because civic participation builds democratic skills and social trust.

The Takeaway

Political socialization is the invisible curriculum of citizenship. We learn politics from:

• Family (most powerful)
• Schools (explicit and implicit)
• Peers (especially in young adulthood)
• Media (increasingly fragmented)
• Religion (strong correlation with party)

Understanding socialization helps explain why political change is slow and why people hold views that seem irrational to their opponents. We’re not purely rational political actors; we’re products of our environments.

The next article examines how we measure what the public actually believes.