Political Socialization In America

When political scientists look at voting behavior and political beliefs, they often turn to people’s upbringings. When looking at this, one area often studies is the environment where people grew up. This means the city and state of a person’s upbringing. While many say that the most effective way to influence political beliefs is through those closest to a person, the geography of where they grew up cannot be ignored. States in America vote for presidents, not people directly and this provides an avenue of people to see how those around them feel and in turn how they should feel about politics. In short, which state someone is from should directly affect which party they vote for. Political socialization is the process of how voters form their opinions and beliefs. This process happens on many levels from the familial to the national and state level. This process is shown to impact partisanship and voter behavior throughout the rest of their lives. However, there are different theories on what level of political socialization is most impactful on voters. …show more content…
Authors have looked into political socialization from many different sources such as the family, education and where people were raised. Socialization during childhood, for example, has been shown to have the greatest impact on voting in several studies. Interestingly, socialization can also be influenced by high school education. Academic Rigor in high school has been linked to increased voter registration among children of immigrants (Humphries, Muller, Schiller, 2013). Among this group, it has been shown that more rigorous high schools are linked to increased voter activity and