Political socialization is defined as the process of acquiring political beliefs, values, attitude as well as citizenship training that shapes a citizen’s political behaviour. It is also the process of political learning from childhood to adulthood. It is a life-long developmental process.
Agents of Political Socialisation
The following are the agents of political socialization:
- Family unit: Transmission of knowledge about politics, authority and allocation of values probably starts at home. The child’s knowledge and experience of political activities start at family unit.
- The peer group: The group one moves with helps to dictate or at least influence one’s political emotion.
- Institutions of learning: Schools, colleges and other educational institutions provide avenue for political talks, debates and discussions which are basic socialising mechanism.
- Social/Religious institutions: Members of social or religious institutions like social clubs, religious centres, associations etc do engage in political arguments and discussions by which members become politically socialized.
- The mass media: Radio, T. V ., newspapers etc disseminate a lot of political news and also analyse political issues thereby socializing listeners, readers and viewers politically.
- Political parties: They educate their members and other people through their manifesto, campaign, rallies etc thereby stimulating people’s political awareness.
- Pressure groups: Pressure groups equally educate their members and even the public through conferences, seminars etc, especially, in the areas of political and civic rights.
