The Family's Role in Political Socialization

Abstract

The family's central role in forming the individ ual's political personality derives from its role as the main source and locus for the satisfaction of all his basic, innate needs. The child therefore tends to identify with his parents and to adopt their outlook toward the political system. The father becomes the prototypical authority figure and thereby initiates the child's view of political authority. The politiciza tion process, at least in America, is basically complete when the child is about thirteen. Under familial and other social cir cumstances in which the child progresses from dependence to autonomy, he is likely to develop into a mature and responsible citizen. When he suffers physical or emotional deprivation, he is likely to establish a pattern of chronic dependence that in cludes the political. When conflict generates between his own emerging needs, family patterns for satisfying them, and the demands and opportunities of the large society, the growing child is in mental turmoil. Only gradually, then, can he change from hierarchized to equalized patterns of political behavior, in which he can responsibly share power with his new equal fellow citizens.