1 Chapter 4; Influences on Beliefs and ActionsJames N. Danziger, (2009) Understanding the Political World, New York: Pearson

2 Outline Explaining Individual Political Behaviour The EnvironmentAgents of Political Socialization Personal Characteristics Political «Personality» Concluding Observations

3 Explaining Individual Political BehaviourWhy do individuals hold particular political beliefs and engage in certain political actions? Four Broad Types of Explanatory Factors in Explaining Individual Political Behaviour: (1)The environment (2)Agents of political socialization (3)Personal characteristics (4)Personality and human nature Chapter 4 considers these four type of influences on the political beliefs and actions of individuals, from the apathetics to the activists.

4 The Environment Is it actually rational to vote?To what extent the person’s environment-the broad context in which an individual lives- can powerfully influence her political behaviour? Defining the environment: Literally everything outside the individual.

5 The Environment The environment includes;political elements(e.g., governmental procedures, public policies, specific political events and actors), elements of the social and cultural systems(e.g., religious foundations, attitudes toward such characteristics as ethnicity, gender and class), elements of the economic order(e.g., level of economic prosperity and development), and the physical features of the environment(e.g., topography, natural resources).

6 The Environment For any particular political belief or action, there are possible effects from an environmental stimulus. An element of the environment might activate, repress, transform, or amplify a person’s political behaviour. Most elements of the environment are likely to have little or no effect at any given moment, so the task of the political analyst is to identify those few environmental elements that do have especially significant effects on political belief or action and to explain how these effects occur.

7 The Environment Different ways in which the environment might affect behavior: (I)Political Environment (II)Social Environment (III)Cultural Environment (VI)Economic Environment (V)Physical Environment

8 Political EnvironmentExamples regarding the political environment: 1. Effects on information about politics In Myanmar(Burma), the government limits the available information about politics, so citizens have only minimal knowledge of the current politics. In the US, the politically interested citizen has access each day to information about worldwide political events.

9 Political Environment2. Effects on individuals’ political party involvement From the late 1940s to the late 1980s, Romania had only one legal political party, the Communist Party. Party membership, open to only about 10 percent of the population, was essential for any citizen who wanted to hold political office or gain major advantages in the society, such as quality housing. Currently, Romania has multiparty democracy. Party membership and opportunities to run for public office are now open to all citizens. However, party membership no longer affords the advantages that existed during the communist period, and thus the proportion of Romanian adults who are active party members of all political parties is lower now.

10 Social Environment If the dominant religion in the cultural environment has traditionally relegated women to a secondary role, as in Saudi Arabia’s adherence to the sharia laws of Islam, it is likely that few women will be involved in politics.

11 Cultural, Economic and Physical EnvironmentIf the poverty is widespread in an economic system, will this influence the probability of political rebellion? On the one hand, such poverty might produce a frustrated population who will be responsive to a revolutionary movement promising future prosperity, and it might inspire a particular person to become very active in such a movement. On the other hand, the people might be too concerned about basic survival to have the time or energy to engage in political action.

12 Agents of Political SocializationEven individuals who live in the same environment can hold very different political beliefs. Political socialization research attempts to explain the sources of individuals’ political beliefs.

13 Political socialization can be defined as the processes through which individuals acquire their orientations toward the political world. Plato( c B.C.E) observed that society’s most important function is civic training, instructing citizens regarding the nature of their social and political world and their proper roles in that world.

14 Agents of Political SocializationThe appropriate content and style of such political socialization are subject to debate, since one person’s vision of proper civic training might be viewed by another person as indoctrination and brainwashing. Among the political scientists, the emphasis in political socialization research has been on analysing the agents of political socialization- the major sources of political training and indoctrination.

15 Agents of Political SocializationSome of the most important agents of political socialization: The Family Schools Peer Groups The Media and Culture Events

16 Agents of Political Socialization-The Family- The family is the first, and often the most powerful and lasting, agent of political socialization. The political orientations of most individuals are deeply influenced by the behaviours and beliefs they experience in the family environment because they have absorbed perceptions about the political world from conversations overheard within the family. For example, most seven-year-old children in the US already identify with one political party( Jennings, Markus, and Niemi 1991).

17 Agents of Political Socialization-The Family- The pattern of interactions between parents and children can have political implications where the child might assume that this is the appropriate pattern of authority relationships in the society. For example, if the family is hierarchical, with the mother or father ruling with an iron hand, preventing discussions, and using strong sanctions for disobedience, the child might assume that this is the appropriate pattern of authority relationships in the society.

18 Agents of Political Socialization-Schools- From the perspective of political authorities, schools can be the state’s most valuable agent for political socialization because they offer the opportunity for sustained and highly controlled contact with youth at the age when many political beliefs can still be molded. Teacher is the authority figure, who rewards thinking and behaviour that conform to what is deemed desirable by the society and who sanctions or withholds rewards from those who fail to conform. In every school system, there are rituals that support the political system( e.g., songs, chants, or activities that express allegiance to political leaders or symbols).

19 Agents of Political Socialization-Schools- The school curriculum is also very important in shaping student’s understanding of the political world. Educational authorities can control what subjects are taught, what textbooks contain, what content is tested, and even what teachers say and do. For example, during the French Fourth Republic( ), it was said that the minister of education in Paris could look at her watch and specify exactly what chapter in what textbook the children of a certain age were studying at that moment all over France.

20 Agents of Political Socialization-Peer Groups- Peer group is a general term that includes friends, neighbours, and colleagues from the workplace or clubs and organizations. According to life cycle interpretation of political socialization, learning never stops entirely. As the importance of parents diminishes and after formal schooling ends, peers groups become an increasingly significant influence on many people’s political socialization.

21 Agents of Political Socialization-Peer Groups- In general, a person is more likely to be accepted by her peers if her beliefs and actions are consistent with those in the peer group. In many cases, peers and others influence a person’s political view via a «two step» communication flow (Bennett 2008; Zaller 1992). (Step One) People with greater interest and knowledge of politics absorb new information from various sources. (Step Two) Then they relay what they have learned to others, especially those in the mass public whose political beliefs are less salient and developed.

22 Agents of Political Socialization-Peer Groups- Peer influence is a powerful factor in the radicalization of many of the «home grown» terrorists who are becoming a significant threat in many countries. Individuals, especially young adult males, who feel alienated and alone as part of a cultural and religious minority find encouragement and direction in a small group of peers who gather informally. Two recent examples of terrorists who emerged from such groups are the two Anglo-Indians who rammed an automobile filled with explosives into the Glasgow Airport terminal in summer 2007 and the 23-year-old American Muslim who planned to detonate hand grenades in a Chicago mall in 2006( Meyer 2007).

23 Agents of Political Socialization-The media and culture- For most adults, the media, especially television, radio, and the press, are the major sources of political information. Media can be a crucial agent of political socialization for either stability or change. These information sources do mediate between the individual and most political reality. For most people, the media have their greatest impact during situations of political drama( e.g., war, major political crisis, elections).

24 Agents of Political Socialization-The media and culture- Two broad observations can be offered on the impact of the media on people’s political beliefs and actions. First, few people absorb media information in a way that significantly changes most of their political attitudes or actions. Rather, people interpret and retain media information selectively to reinforce their existing attitudes. Second, however, there is considerable evidence that the media are increasingly important in shaping many people’s understandings of specific political phenomena. The mass media have an agenda setting impact-drawing people’s attention to some political phenomena rather than to others-.

25 Agents of Political Socialization-The media and culture- For many young people, the Internet has become the key source of political information. The easy access to powerful search engines and vast online resources from around the globe and the capacity to participate in discussion environments such as blogs offer individuals extensive opportunities to use the new media to reinforce or alter their political orientations and to inform their political actions

26 Agents of Political Socialization-The media and culture- Much of what you know about the political world from the media is contingent on what topics the media choose to expose you and what content the media select to report. In many countries, the major media are owned and controlled by the government or by members of the wealthy, dominant class in society. Most governments expose people to «news» and information that reinforce the government’s view of the political world.

27 Agents of Political Socialization-The media and culture- Culture offers an interesting alternative to the media and to other agents of political socialization. Like the media, culture can be controlled by the dominant political order in a society and can be used to reinforce the state’s view of the political world. For example, Cuba has generally insisted that culture must meet the standards of «socialist realism,» which means that no art, theatre, or cinema is to be produced that is abstract or, that fails to celebrate the virtues of socialism.

28 Agents of Political Socialization-The media and culture- Culture can also be openly subversive, directly attacking mainstream values or advocating opposing values. For example, Jamaican reggae music offers a revolutionary vision of an alternative social and political world for its people.

29 Agents of Political Socialization-Events- While the context of everyday life has slow, evolutionary effects on a person’s political behaviour, a particular event can act as a sudden and powerful agent of political socialization. It is also possible that the general flow of events during an entire period can influence political orientations. For example, the combined impacts of such events as American military involvement in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the hippie culture, and the Nixon presidency seem to have had strong effects on the political understandings of many Americans who were reaching adulthood during the late 1960s.

30 Personal CharacteristicsSometimes called demographic characteristics. These include both visible characteristics, such as age, gender, and ethnicity, and less visible ones, such as education, income, social class, and occupation. Personal characteristics can be thought of as filters that influence how the environment and the agents of political socialization affect an individual’s political behaviour. For example, the current impact of parents as agents of political socialization is likely to be far greater for their children of age 4 than of 44.

31 Personal CharacteristicsWho is more likely to vote? and What are the identifying factors that seem to explain the particular voting choice? No single personal characteristics is a certain predictor of political behaviour. Empirical research indicate that some personal characteristics are associated with certain political beliefs and actions. See Table 1 on page 103

32 Personal CharacteristicsAlthough there are some clear associations among variables, we cannot conclude that any personal characteristic actually caused a person to vote for a particular candidate. And when several personal characteristics are associated with voting choice, we also cannot determine which of them are the most powerful predictors of candidate choice without statistical analysis.

33 In general, a higher probability of voting is correlated with such characteristics as membership in organizations that have explicit interests in politics, higher education, higher income, higher social class, greater age, and male gender. Voting is also associated with the person’s political beliefs, especially a strong identification with a party, a greater sense of personal capacity to influence the political world(«political efficacy»), and better understanding of the available political choices.

34 Personal CharacteristicsIn studying extremist-activists, many analyses attempt to specify the personal characteristics that typify a particular type of activist relative to the general population. For example, The rural extremist-activists who are engaged in a struggle for control over land in Asia and Latin America tend to be male, poor, and of limited education. Urban activists who promote leftist ideologies are generally characterized as being well educated, middle class, young, and only slightly more likely to be male than female.

35 Political «Personality»Some analysts insist that an adequate explanation of political behaviour requires explication of the political personality- the deeper psychological dynamics inside the individual that affect her response to political stimuli.

36 political personality- (the deeper psychological dynamics inside the individual that affect her response to political stimuli.) Can be defined as the propensities within an individual to act in a certain way, given a particular context. If someone is usually cheerful or aggressive or thoughtful under a variety of circumstances, this style of behaving could be called a personality trait of that individual. Most of the empirical research examining political personality has focused on the beliefs and actions of political activists.

37 -Normative approaches to political personality:What personality characteristics do you think are desirable in a political leader? Machiavelli( ), author of the Prince ( 1517/1977), advices about the kind of personality a political leader needs to have. For him, the leader must combine the qualities of the lion (aggressive, brave) and the fox (clever) and must make the citizens completely dependent on her every decision and action.

38 -Empirical Approaches to political personality:There are also empirical studies aim to explain the behaviour of top political leaders and activists. These studies attempt to identify their key personality traits (such as idealism, aggressiveness, frustration, and so on) and then link those traits to specific political beliefs and actions. Harold Lasswell (1960) (one of the intellectual founders of the behavioural political science) argues that the activist political personality is motivated primarily by the drive to overcome a low sense of self-esteem. The systemic empirical evidence suggests that most top political leaders actually rank higher on measures of self-esteem and psychological well-being than does the average adult (Sniderman 1975).

39 Political «Personality»Erik Erikson (1958, 1969) adopts a Freudian framework to reveal the crucial importance of child rearing and early socialization through adolescence in determining the activist’s later political behaviour. Empirical, personality-based approaches have also been used to account for the behaviour of other types of political activists, such as student radicals. --- radicals tend to be more intelligent, creative, idealistic and independent than the non-radicals. --- terrorists are those who have been troubled by high levels of loneliness, alianation and isolation.

40 Biology and Human NatureSome emphasize the importance of biology a more generalized conception grounded in human nature (innate motivations and invariant drives shared by all people.) The question is whether there are innate human motivations that affect political behaviour. it is also linked with another question whether there are fundamental elements of human nature that cannot be significantly altered by socialization and institutions.

41 -- In general one claim: we are not merely the product of our environment.But the crucial issue relevant to understanding politics is the extent to which individual personality and human nature cause political behaviour. Empirical social science has not managed to answer these questions about nature versus nurture in relation to politics.

42 Concluding ObservationsThis chapter began by asking whether it is possible to explain political beliefs and actions. In general, analyses can rarely prove that any of the four types of explanatory factors we examined is almost always the basic causal factor for a particular micro political behaviour. Nonetheless, the evidence summarized in this chapter suggests that relevant knowledge about each of these four sets of explanatory factors can provide significant insights regarding political behaviour.