Socialism's Legacy: The Impact of Political Socialization on Citizens' Conceptions of Democracy

Political culture literature asserts that a certain overlap between the existing democratic system and citizens’ attitudes towards democracy is crucial for democratic stability. Consequently, citizens’ conceptions of democracy not only influence political attitudes or vote choice, but also the endurance of democracy in light of challenges such as rising populism. For the German case, research has shown that differences in political socialization between East and West Germans have caused differences in what conceptions of democracy citizens hold, suggesting that young generations socialized in re-unified Germany should be converging in their attitudes. However, the ongoing disparities in political attitudes between East and West raise the questions of how sustainable socialization is, and to what extent differences in political socialization are passed on to younger generations. Using data from Round 10 of the European Social Survey, the paper tests socialization effects on a liberal, a social democratic, and a populist understanding of democracy. The results confirm that political socialization influences what conceptions citizens hold. For both a social democratic and a populist conception, the oldest generations differ significantly in their support, while the attitudes of young people are largely converging. This is somewhat reassuring in regard to the East-West divide in political attitudes in Germany. More research is needed to disentangle age, period, and cohort effects and assess the effect of political socialization on a populist conception of democracy and its mechanisms more closely.