Political Socialization

Political Socialization: Comparing Claims Investigating Decline in Political Participation Among Youth

Spencer Grecco
0744241
POLS1400
Professor H. Gibbs
Amy – Tuesday 4:00 pm
Monday November 12, 2012
Word Count - 1427
In order to be explicit in the understanding and application of politics, one must first understand the method in which they are politically socialized. How well one is politically socialized can be seen through many aspects of day to day life such as how they participate in public affairs, political conversations and most importantly if and how they vote. It has been widely acknowledged that the lack of participation in politics and elections by adolescents is becoming a national dilemma. The three articles reviewed
He argues that due to prolonged education, youth are not thoroughly educated enough in political issues when it becomes time to vote in an actual election (Hooghe, 2004). Even with the education provided, the fact remains that adolescents are not integrated into the labour market, they do not have kids or own a house; without being involved in any of these activities or events it is understandable as to why youth are less connected to political and civil society (Hooghe, 2004). Education is critical in acquiring political knowledge indefinitely, although it is valid as to why many youth do not bother to concern themselves with political activity, when they do not feel as involved as those of older generations such as their parents. While the connections made by Warren & Wicks (2011) as well as Claes et al. (2009) were valid, the argument presented by Hooghe (2004) in regards to education is much more objective and applicable to
(2009) that made their claims less persuasive than the findings of Hooghe (2004); but what was not addressed. What Warren & Wicks (2011) presented was very central around the macro-level and micro-level socialization methods, focusing on family and the parent-child relationship. The flaw in their article was that there was a great deal of focus on what factors should in theory lead to political participation, yet lacked in reasons concerning why there is such a low amount of adolescent participation. Claes et al. (2009) made the same error by stating at the beginning of their article “37% of citizens 18-24 voted in the federal election of 2004, compared to the 61% of the entire population”. They addressed the statistical issue of scarce youth voting, but did not provide any insight as to why the turnout may be so low. Claes et al. (2009) focused too specifically on education and how it can increase political participation, but did not provide any theories as to how civic education may be lacking in encouraging youth to want to