Political Socialization as a Crucial Aspect to be Endowed in All Nuclear Families in UAE - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Subject: Date: Political socialization in UAE Political Socialization is the learning process where the acceptable behaviors and codes of conducts acceptable in the well running system of politics are inherited from one generation to the other. Political socialization is highly influenced by the family life and the experience acquired in school. These two agents are the base officials to political socialization since they form the essential interaction point in life. Politics in any country depends on the value created from the family level or the school. Children in school learn many matters concerning political status. The teachers also play an important role in the political development of the kids where the kids chose their student representatives .( Hyman and Herbert, 1959 p 19). By involving their children to these representative tasks the nurture young leaders and also help the pupils and students to learn the best qualities of the future leaders to vote into power. The kids also start having their political role models to emulate. They start addressing their fellow pupils just as they see these leaders treat the citizens in political rallies as they watch their television. There are several agents of political socialization. To start with, media; media in the society is a central role of communication. Mostly the media informs the citizens of the current issues that emerge within the country. Media also reports the youths and the children about political information. Secondly, the other factor is a religion (Langton, Kenneth, p 72). The views of an individual can highly be affected by the religious tradition. Some people will be highly involved in policy making favoring the political views (Dawson andRichard, p 105). This can be clearly be demonstrated in areas where there is religion diversity. Thirdly, schools; in school, there is many influences to the kids and students in general. The students are in a position to interact with many friends and people of different ages starting from the teachers to the fellow students. The students are also exposed to various political beliefs and views. They engage in political discussions and get to learn more political views. The other factor is political parties; the have a little political influence to the children. They affect the way the kids think about politics affecting the country. They also have different factors such as power and ages and many other (Niemi, Richard, and Mary p12). The family, it is one of the most influential factors on political issues. The family contributes to the kid’s political orientation development. The grand child’s influence is because of the vigorous and close rapport created between the child and rest of the family members. They also table their discussion for everyone to discuss, and this contributes to the child’s political influence. In the research, it is better to understand “how does the family play a significant role as an agent to accomplish primary socialization? A family is a basic unit of life, individuals especially the youths at their adolescence age are provided with political sympathies framework (Ehmanand Lee, p108). They are also in a position to learn from the adult experience may deepen or modify. In my research question on the role of the family as an agent of political socialization in a tough question to have a clear understanding since a family is seen as a less important unit when it comes to matters of national politics (Greenstein and Fred, p 58). This is because children mostly acquire political beliefs basing on the influence of their parents. They may also acquire political interests basing on other adults in the area of even as they watch their television and see the political leaders in the region. Children also gain political cultures of the family members who are perhaps older. The question becomes difficult because it is not often that parents or adults to have a talk with the children about politics. However, the children are ever keen as they listen to the adults as they speak. They pick the remarks made by their parents and the children made a quick conclusion and acquired (Sears and David, p 100). In the discussion, I attempt to discuss the significance of the family in political shape up in any given country based on responsible family teachings. In a general view of the child’s political know, how is determined by a combination of two crucial factors? The first factor is the receptivity. The children have a tendency to be receptive to the political opinions by their family members due to their innate need for approval by the parents. The other underlying factor is communication. In every family, communication has always been open to all family members. Educative conversations are held mainly in the evening as the parents gather may be after taking their meals. The parents may communicate to their children about their political views and their political beliefs. In my explanation on political socialization, the family communication can have a positive influence on political forces. Most of the children who benefit on policy issues and gain interest in taking part in politics are the children whose parents communicate political issues to their children just like any other family issue (Langton, Kenneth, and Kent Jennings, p 830). Most of the children whose parents have an active encouragement the expression of political opinions are in a good position to address public affairs with courage and are without fear and favor. Contrary, social orientation is where the child’s parents emphasize the significance of difference and also there is a social harmony. Parents argue that the children are likely to give an offensive argument to others. Most of the kids in social-oriented families are portrayed to have less critical on information and are seen to have fewer conflicts on the message and hence there is a low level of political know-how. In families that endow open communication, they high levels of critical thinking, political knowledge and also elevated levels of discussion. In the political socialization, the views of political views are influenced by individual interests. Most adults with little or no political interests have a less to communicate about politics. In such families, the kids will have no chance to discuss political views. Instead, they will forego political interests for the benefit of the parents, like business and sports. In the research, children and adolescents spend much time in the course of the week watching television. They as well devote more time to media compared to the time they spare for their studies. Roughly children spend about 30-31 hours a week watching televisions. Adolescents on the other side spend more time than the children (Sapiro, Virginia, p 24). They spend approximately 40-41 hours. The students who focus on the media programs are believed to be having a better understanding of the issues of the Arabic countries. The knowledge of the political issues and the values of the Arabic countries by the children is because the programs that they watch are meant to be of adult citizens. Several types of research have been carried out in UAE similar to the research I carried out I found that there are three ways of defining political socialization, the first way is behavioral, there is also cognitive and affective socialization. In the research, it was found that 70% of the most influential politicians were brought up in families that had their parents supported political views. These politicians were either for former political leaders or other leaders who were in power. The influence they gained was as a result of parental encouragement to join politics. These politicians were also found to have a clear understanding of the issues that significantly affected the local citizens. They were the politicians who were also vocal in parliamentary debates. These politicians had their debates in parliament supported by facts and also based their argument on the history of the past. They seemed to understand the political trends. The 21% of the other politicians were less vocal in parliamentary debates (Niemi, Richard, and Hepburn, p 11). They had less understanding of the affairs of the citizens. They acquired political interests from either in school or from friends. Their parents are of less political interest. They were not politically nurtured by their parents and thus they had no strong argument as the 70% who were brought up by parents who strongly supported politics. There were also 9% of the politicians who never participated in parliamentary debates. These are the politicians whose parents seemed not even to bother about politics. They had other areas of interests such as business and farming. These politicians had much interest in financial gain. Their primary interest was not to offer political leadership but to earn a living as political representatives. These politicians unlike other politicians gained political influence from workmates and also influences from their friends. Media has played an important role just as the family has contributed to political socialization. It has been noticed that among the youths media has played a significant role in political socialization. A good example is where many teens are involved in the reading of newspapers and magazines. They get relevant information that they compare with what they learn in class. In the research that relating to the relationship between political socialization and the news consumption is not perfect since, in the process of political socialization, most of the people focused are youths and children. Less emphasis is laid on the adults. In the study, much of the focus is put on political knowledge since the since much study has been done to the children. In conclusion, political socialization is indeed a crucial aspect to be endowed in all nuclear families. The parents involving their children in discussions that involve politics will not only be beneficial to the kids but also for the country in future. The children will be in a position to learn the qualities of a good leader and also will be in a position to gain courage in expressing their rights confidently and without favor. Parents who also express their political views to their children assist them to understand the issues that the country is facing and the build up their political knowledge (Flanagan and Constance, p 43). The kids are also found to be active in class as they argue out in either academic groups or even in classes; in most of the cases, they are found to be the best student representatives in their classes. They are also in a position to express the grievances of the students to the administration and monitor for an action to be done by the stuff concerning the grievances presented. Works cited Dawson, Richard E., and Kenneth Prewitt. Political socialization: an analytic study. Little, Brown, (1968):102-109. Ehman, Lee H. "The American school in the political socialization process." Review of Educational Research 50.1 (1980): 99-119 Flanagan, Constance A. "Volunteerism, leadership, political socialization, and civic engagement." (2004): 38-51. Greenstein, Fred. "3 Children and Politics." Political socialization (1965): 56-60. Hyman, Herbert. "Political socialization." (1959):15-28. Langton, Kenneth P., and M. Kent Jennings. "Political socialization and the high school civics curriculum in the United States." American political science review 62.03 (1968): 852-867 Langton, Kenneth P. Political socialization. (1969): 72-81. Sears, David O. "Political socialization." Handbook of political science 2 (1975): 93-153. Niemi, Richard G., and Mary A. Hepburn. "The rebirth of political socialization." Perspectives on Political Science 24.1 (1995): 7-16. Niemi, Richard G., and Barbara I. Sobieszek. "Political socialization." Annual Review of Sociology (1977): 209-233. Sapiro, Virginia. "NOT YOUR PARENTS'POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION: Introduction for a New Generation." Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 7 (2004): 1-23. Read More