Political Culture and PoliticPolitical Culture and Political Socialisation al Socialisation

Culture ….Culture ….

Remember we have mentioned …. the nature of human being …. what people believe …. how people act ….

These are all about how people think, believe and act ….

Political culture is a broadly shared set of ways of thinking about politics and government, a patternof orientations to political objects.

…. Cognitive (know / believe what) …. Affective (like / dislike)

Why we are so?

If not born to be so, we are socialised to be ...

Political Socialisation… the developmental process from which people acquire their political orientations and patterns of behaviour

TypologiesTypologies

Manifested vs LatentPlanned vs Unplanned

Socialisation AgentsSocialisation Agents

Family / ParentSchoolPeer Group (friends, colleagues, cla

ssmates, neighbours)Mass Media

socialisation and resocialisation ...

What is learned when we are growing up?What is learned when we are growing up?

Childhood: perceive few basic political objects as somehow different from their families

Early School Age: construct more abstract perception of political objects

Adolescence: increasing exposure to all faces of society (bad and good), political favour

Adulthood: firm belief and active in politics Old Age: gradually decline in political activit

y

Political culture of Hong Kongese Political culture of Hong Kongese

Trust to government, politics, parties, politicians

ParticipationDemocracy

Why we are so? Who socializes us to be so?