Political Socialization I

Abstract

The sources of political attitudes are multiple. Political ideologies, partisanship, differing levels of participation, or radicalism, they all find deep roots in socializing processes and actors that range from family transmission, through school environment and reference groups’ influence to the short term effects of political campaigns among others. The proposed panel aims to contribute to disentangle the relationship between the process of acquiring a defined political identity and socialization experiences, and to understand the role of the several socializing agents that underlie political affinities. The panel Political Socialization I brings together graduate students who develop work on related topics. Four of the five paper proposals use a single case study to explore different socializing factors in the construction of political attitudes and/or practices. Two papers will focus on institutions, one of them is a theoretical work and the other is a case study of Italian citizens. Two other papers will look at political agents, one of them describing the influence of Belgian local politicians and the other showing the importance of norm entrepreneurs. There is another contribution which is concerned with the effects of political past experiences on the political attitudes of the present. Together, although inspired by differing theoretical perspectives and methodologies, they offer a coherent view on some of the varied causes of political attitudes and will raise a rich and fruitful discussion on the topic of political socialization. In the following it is offered a short overview of the contributions: Cristina Sánchez, from an institutional perspective, explores the ways in which institutions can influence the process of identity formation of citizens. Chiara Facello also focuses on institutions and analyses their effects on citizens’ values, more concretely on the relationship between democratic institutions and democratic values in Italy. André Coene shows how socializing agents influence political affinities and, therefore, policy outcomes at the local level through the case study of the development of urban policies in Ghent, Belgium during the 70’s. Christine Hanrieder’s contribution offers the insights of the so-called Ottawa Process evidencing how norm entrepreneurs are able to produce a normative change through the building of a “community ethos”. Cécil Cuny studies how past political experiences can produce different worlds of values, practices, and political views through a case study of local policies on political participation in the quarters of Berlin, Germany.

Title	Details
Socializing agents underlie political affinities, a Belgian case-study	View Paper Details
The institutions in the identity’s construction process. A review of the Michel Wieviorka’s analyses	View Paper Details
The democratic (dis)satisfaction: is Italy a really deviant case?	View Paper Details
How to make continuity despite discontinuity: the use of biography by former East-German communists	View Paper Details