The Problem
Many scholars have been collecting the data about “political sociailzation” -how people come to have a political orientation as they do. But they haven't reducted generalized propositions (in Merton's sense) from these data. In this paper, I try to reduct empirical propositions and to discover a small number of propositions that are valid in several diverse context.
The procedure
Many scholars studying group dynamics have accumulated results about group pressure. So, I try to reinterpret political socialization process as the effects of group pressure of agents groups such as family, school, occupational groups.
The Results
Four variables are found to be important to explain the strength of the group pressure of agents. These are (1) the degree of acceptance of the group norm (2) the degree of importance of the group norm for the group (3) the degree of attractiveness of the group for the group member (4) the group structure.
Propositions
I can't afford to stale all propositions here. For example, I state about the first proposition.
Social Psychological Proposition (a general proposition)
The more people in the group percept and accept the group norm, the more people come to conform to the group norm.
Political Socialization Proposition (empirical propositions)
A. Family…… the more children know about parents' political orientation (the group norm of the family), the more they conform to the parents' political orientation.
B. Scool
The more pupils accept the group norm about political orientation (if any), the more they conform to the school norm.
C. Occupational group.
The more people communicate about political issuses in work place and form and accept the group norm, the more people conform to the group norm.
