American Politics and Government Political Ideology and Political
- Slides: 9
American Politics and Government Political Ideology and Political Socialization PLS 121: American Politics and Government
Political Ideology • What is it? – Ideology: Underlying personal position (ideal point) used to determine specific issue position • What influences it? – Family – Media – Church – School 2
Measurements • One-Dimensional – – Liberal-Conservative Scale Left-Right Scale French Parliament Seven-Point Scale • Two-Dimensional – Social and Economic Axes 3
Political Labels • One-Dimensional – – – Revolutionary Liberal Moderate Conservative Reactionary 4
Political Labels • Two-Dimensional – Economic Axis: • Communism – (Economic Control) • Liberalism – (Economic Freedom) – Social Axis: • Authoritarianism – (Social Control) • Anarchism – (Social Freedom) 5
Political Labels Economic: Liberal Social: Anarchism Social: Authoritarian Economic: Communist 6
Political Socialization • What is it? – The formation and Change in political ideology. – Used to indoctrinate people into the political culture. • What factors affect it? – The same factors that influence it. • Family • Media • Church • School 7
Thoughts and Questions • When does socialization take place? • Is socialization a good thing or a bad thing? • Is socialization brainwashing? • Does the dominant cultural ideology change from country to country, region to region? 8
Thoughts and Questions • Can ideologies or political theories, per se, be right or wrong? What are the consequences of this? • Why can there be considered three axes of ideology: social, economic, and extremist? • What is the difference between ‘wrong’ and ‘unsupported’ (or ‘true’ and ‘supported’)? 9
