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Comparative Politics and Government

Notes one generation to another. Thus, the aim of this concept is to train or develop the individuals in a
way that they become well-functioning members of a political community. Obviously, it has a
peculiarly psychological dimension in the sense that it “is the gradual learning of the norms,
attitudes and behaviour acceptable to an on-going political system.”
The process of political socialisation generally acts in a causal or imperceptible manner. That is, it
operates in a quiet or smooth manner without people’s being aware of it. The people take the
norms for granted without questioning their legitimacy. Thus, the subject-matter of this concept
“is the process by which people acquire political values not simply during active political
participation, but also in the period before they engage in an explicitly political activity.” Thus
viewed, political socialisation would encompass all political learning whether formal or informal,
or whether deliberate and unplanned, at every stage of the cycle of his life, including not only
explicitly political learning which “affects political behaviour, such as the learning of politically
irrelevant social attitudes and the acquisition of politically relevant personal characteristics.”
The stability of a social or political system depends on the political socialisation of its members on
account of the fact that a well-functioning citizen is one who accepts (internalises) society’s political
norms and who will then transmit them to future generations. For example, the members of a
stable democratic system as operating in Britain are trained and made habitual of adopting
constitutional means to affect changes rather than resorting to the techniques of taking the matters
to the streets or creating conditions of a violent upheaval. Political socialisation thus covers the
whole process by which an individual “born with behavioural potentialities of immense range, is
led to develop actual behaviour which is confined with a much narrower range —the range of
which is customary and acceptable for him according to the students of his groups.”
Simply stated, political socialisation desires to achieve the goal of political stabilisation. It stands
on the premise that a political system cannot function smoothly unless the process of the
internalisation of political norms and values is at work simultaneously. As in the case of an
individual organism so in the case of body politic, nothing but maintenance or survival is needed.
And survival means nothing else than stabilisation. As Roberta Sigel says: “The goal of political
socialisation is to so train or develop individuals so that they become well-functioning members of
the political society... For without a body politic in harmony with the on-going political values and
the political system would have trouble in functioning smoothly and perpetuating itself safely.
And survival, after all, is a prime goal of the political organism just as it is of the individual
organism.

The principal emphasis of the concept of political socialisation is on the transmission
of political values from one generation to another.

Political socialisation seeks to inculcate values, norms and orientations in the minds of the individuals
so that they develop trust in their political system and thereby keep themselves like well-functioning
citizens and also leave their indelible imprints on the minds of their successors. Political socialisation
may thus be defined as the process by which an individual “becomes acquainted with the political
system and which determines his reactions to political phenomena. It involves the examination of
the social, economic or cultural environment of society upon the individual and upon his political
attitudes and values. Political socialisation is the most important link between the social and political
systems, but may vary considerably from one system to another. From a political point of view,
political socialisation is extremely important as the process by which individuals become involved
to varying degrees in the political system-in political participation.
Development of Political Socialisation: Case of Open versus Closed Societies
Every society that wishes to maintain itself or to have its stability as a condition precedent to its
survival has one of its essential functions in the socialisation of the young in order to enable them

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