Political socialization,

Recruitment and Culture

Political Socialization
• Political socialization is when an individual’s orientation towards
political objects are formed.
• Political socialization of an individual continue throughout life. It is
adapted and reinforced as an individual goes through his social
experience.
• A certain event or development can impact political orientation of the
whole society like great war, economic depression, mass movement
or trauma which effect millions of people.
Types of Political Socialization
• Political socialization can be manifest or latent
It is manifest when explicit communication of information, values and
feelings are expressed towards political object.

Latent political socialization when non-political attitudes effects

attitudes towards political role or political object
e.g. shaping good or antagonistic attitudes towards political leadership.
Political participation in a family decision can increase his political
competency.
Agents of Political Socialization
Family
• Parents impact children attitudes towards political system, party
affiliation e.g. Wylie’s study of French small town showed attitude of
contempt towards political system even if curriculum was saying
something else.
• In terms of party affiliation children are more likely to dispose towards
their parents party affiliation.
Schools
• Schools play a vital role in dispensing manifest transfer of political
knowledge and political awareness about political process.
• People who are more educated have higher political competency.
• Schools are the only agent where government can control the process
of political socialization more directly through teaching and
curriculum.
• British schools inculcate the values of public duty, informal political
relations and political morality among young people.
• Schools are also used to incorporate affection for political system
through symbolism like political and cultural history.
• Schools contain particular patterns of authoritative decisions.
Participation in decision making compensate for lack of it at home. It
also train young people to deal with the authority.
Peer Group
• Once family bond loosen especially in an industrial society.
• Family training become incompatible with the social environment of a
person. In these circumstances formal and informal peer group have a
considerable impact on a person’s views.
• Peer group affect the political behavior of a person in future. It builds
or breakdown the attitudes.
Employment
• Experience of employment may also shape political orientation.
Informal organizations like unions and social clubs may channel
explicit communication and information about political system.
• Participation in the process of collective bargaining or involvement in
strike a person gain information e.g. striking laborer learn to shape
authoritative decisions through action skills like demonstrating,
picketing etc.
Mass Media
• Mass media have long term impact on political attitudes of people by
providing information about specific events in a certain way.
• A controlled media is a powerful source in shaping political beliefs.
Continuity or discontinuity of political socialization
• Political socialization patterns consolidate over time. In such circumstance
no conflict emerge in political system
• Sometime we witness discontinuity in political socialization due to a
major change like regime or constitutional and legal structure which
destabilizes the political socialization patterns causing conflict e.g.
Weimar Republic (1918-1933).
• Modernization also cause discontinuity in old patterns in a very gradual
manner. Move from diffused traditional roles to differentiated political
roles cause conflict.
• In modern society we try to develop national political culture which come
into conflict with subcultures which are diffuse ascriptive and latent
Political Recruitment
Recruitment into political system
• Universalistic Recruitment means selection of officers by lot, ability,
elections or proof of ability and performance through examination.
• Particularistic recruitment means recruitment on the basis of
particular tribe and ethnicity.
Diffused-Traditional system in Political Recruitment
• In traditional political system the recruitment in political roles is
particularistic based on ascriptive criteria.
• Modern system use mostly universalistic recruitment.
• In traditional political system rulers select administrative staff based on
loyalty to ruler, family, clan or status group. This administrative staff came
from both aristocratic strata.
• Rulers ensured dependentbility of administrative staff. Usually they had
slaves, eunuchs, clergy, special families and mercenaries.
• Particularism is not the sole criteria ability and performance matters as
well. Similarly in modern system it is not necessary to have a
universalistic recruitment family relations, class and social
status, school ties and friendship.
Differentiated Political System
• Political system has specialized roles for the extraction, distribution,
regulative and response capabilities of the political system.
• The way in which individuals are recruited into political system
determine its capabilities.
• Administrative officials chosen on the basis of performance criteria
tend to be more effective in the performance of the specialized
functions.
• Performance of the political system is important in the national and
international arena.
Political Culture
• Attitudes, beliefs and values of people towards political system.
Orientation of an individual
1. Cognitive Orientation Knowledge of political object (accurate or not)
2. Affective Orientation is feeling of attachment towards political
object (Rejection or acceptance)
3. Evaluative Orientation is Judgment or opinion about political object
Types of Political Culture
• Political orientation can be characterized in many ways the most
effective one is looking into political culture in terms of distribution of
general attitudes towards political system and the input and output
process.
• We can look at people in terms of their awareness of political objects
and their significance in individual activities.
1) Parochial who manifest little or no awareness of political system.
These kind of individuals are rare in modern world sometimes we
can find them in transitional societies or large regional groups.
2) Subject are those individuals who are orientated towards the output
stage of political system such as welfare benefits, laws or outputs which
have a direct impact on their lives. They are not oriented towards input
process.
3) Participants those individuals who are oriented towards input and
output structure and process. They engage themselves in the
articulation of demands and making of decisions.
• We cannot exclusively label a political culture as one of the above
kinds most political cultures are a combination of all of them e.g.

Robert Scott studied Mexico’s political culture

between 1910-1960. He estimated Mexican political
culture in 1910 to be 90% parochial, 9% subject and 1%
participant. In 1960 it was 25% parochial, 65% subject
and 10% participant.
• The maintenance of law and order in a society centers on the positive
orientation of the political system towards government agencies is
easier.
• Often citizens of a new country or in times of internal crisis are more
oriented towards availing benefits of government output.
• It is because citizen of a new country have not learned to obey the
law.
• In case of internal crisis they are in a survival mode and care less
about participation.
• Both circumstances comprise supports for political system.
• Political competence influence the appropriateness of political action
e.g.
• In the US when people have a local problem they make a political
group and use legitimate means to rectify their grievances.
• On the other hand in Italy people do not trust government to take
action so they passively accept a decision if dissatisfaction is not
overwhelming or erupt into violence if grievances become too much.
• It is also important to ascertain general level of political trust in
society.
• Where this trust is low it affects the political cohesion of political
groups and their ability to interact with each other e.g. In Italy and
Germany after WWII the traumatic experience before and after the
war made people avoid interaction with each.
• Political culture can either harmonious or a discordant process for
instance in Britain a tradition of negotiation and consultation exist
with all legitimate parties involved in the process of law making which
is based on aggregation of legitimate demands.
• Political culture with moderating norms tend to dampen the
harshness of political disagreement.
• The classic Marxist view considers political action an attempt by
dominant class to maintain its mastery over subordinate class in an
effort to oppress the working class.
Secularization of Political Culture
• Secularization of political culture means is increasing awareness of
people about their role as a political actor.
• One of the immediate outcome of secularization is pragmatic
bargaining. People consider politics as a set of give and take
interactions in which both side bargain for more or less.
• Human relations are extension of political interactions. Manipulation
and reciprocity is the part of pragmatic bargaining .
• Bargaining between constituents and politician on votes involves
mutual benefit.
Parochial in the process of secularization
• Another attribute of secularization is movement from diffuseness to
specificity of orientation.
• In traditional societies like Eskimos do not distinguish separate roles
of a shaman or hunting chief as separate from their role as a political
leader. In their view it is all the same.
• They are a parochial political culture and are on borderline of
awareness.
Political subjects in the process of
secularization
• When an individual become aware of variety of government role like
tax collection, military service.
• Sometime they understand the input process and do not trust
political system.
• Sometime they do not understand the input process and structure.
• In case of military rule with one party system the autonomy of
political subculture are compromised by limited availability if input
channels.
• All circumstances leads to political subjects.
Political participants in the process of secularization

The political participants develop specific attitudes towards

political input structures such as political parties, interest groups and
towards the role they can play in the structures.
In this case people have reached the optimal level of
cultural secularization.
Ideological political culture and secularization
• In Continuum of the process of secularization one of the most
interesting stage is ideological political culture. It develops when
individuals develop a specific type of orientation absent bargaining
attitudes required for the secularization process.
• Rigid set of rules of conduct spelled out by
ideology. Accommodation is acceptable within the bounds of
ideological norms.
• Ideological political culture arise in transitional societies where
bargaining is limited in politics of tribes, clan and cast and also
frustration of colonialism and modernization and associated cultural
conflict.
Subcultures
• When a particular set of orientation is different from others in the
political system is where subcultures emerge.
• There can be a high level of agreement on orientation about political
object or differences on the basis of education, ethnicity, geographic
location, religious faith and social or economic position.
• In developing countries the problem of political subculture is imminent
for instance India differences on the basis of language, religion, class pose
a sever problem for political regime even after establishment of national
identity.
• For any system to work there has to be an agreement on nature of
politics, general role government in the society and legitimate goal of
policy and participation.