1. What do we learn through political socialisation?
   1. Appropriate attitudes, values and beliefs which guide or even condition their behaviour
      1. What is appropriate is a very flexible idea
      2. Might mean individuals who can think for themselves, dissent and so on
      3. But could also be more limited, in societies in which dissent is less well regarded.
   2. Some of these may/will be core or valence beliefs - implicit and powerful, deep structures of identity
      1. But for many people politics is a mercifully peripheral activity. Not something that consumes our lives.
         1. "by and large people would rather dig the garden than get involved in politics" crossland
         2. Governments may find it inconvenient if people are too involved! The usual suspects only is plenty!
   3. Others may be less powerful and basic - contingent on circumstance. E.g. Student riots last year. Most would not normally get involved but their involvement came because of a decision that affected them. Or maybe because of a tragedy in your life you get involved in campaigning for something.
2. How is it learned? How do we become socialised?
   1. The may be specific efforts, such as civics education, to help the process, but in general it's more informal than that.
   2. Formal instruction. Maybe through some kind of institutional system, such as in USSR youth groups etc.
   3. Probably more significant is informal learning about the world around us.
      1. E.g. Small children are highly receptive to the world around them. They soon begin not just to learn but to have and form opinions of their own.
   4. By imitation. Imitation of parents' opinion perhaps.
      1. Wisdom of crowds. A lot of voting research seems to show that the way people first vote is often how parents tend to vote. And in later life often as part of an in-group.
   5. Through "motivation" - meaning the sense in which people learn to behave in response maybe to reward.
      1. Or, my motivations may be changed, for instance, by the tragic event that changes your life or opinion above.
3. When are these things learned? Age?
   1. Area of continuing debate. Research steward either
      1. Primacy (childhood socialisation)
         1. Think of the Boys from Brazil film - early childhood experiences key to understanding personality development. Not all clones of Hitler would turn out to be Hitler. Emphasise the receptiveness of young children to stimuli.
      2. Recency (experiential/developmental learning over time)
         1. Based on a completely different understanding of how and when humans learn
         2. Recognises the potential impact of changing circumstances upon consciousness and identity. Change of circumstances. Different stimuli over life time etc.
         3. The is little/no evidence of being able to deliberately condition or change people's attitudes in adult life. Individuals, yes, but not mass brain washing like Pol Pot might have wanted. You can change behaviour but not ideas.
      3. The more common sense position may be that it is a bit of both - we learn in childhood, but continue to do so over our whole lives.
4. From whom or what is it learned?
5. What are the consequences of social learning for the individuals concerned and for the wider social system?
6. Check out RD Laing