INTRODUCTION
Although
there are many agents of political socialization, including but are not
limited to Family, Media, Peers,
Education, Religion, Race, Gender, Age
and Geography, and in fact every point where man meets man, only a few major
ones shall be discussed in this unit.
The unit categorizes them into two: primary and secondary. The two categories
shall be fully discussed. Knowledge of
this unit shall assist the student in:
Identifying the various agents of socialization, Distinguishing between
the primary and the secondary ones and Understanding how they work to socialize
people into politics . The main content here discusses the major agents of
political socialization. These agents refer to institutions and structures that
socialize people into politics; the agents that people are introduced to as
they grow up, and that affect their political views throughout the rest of
their lives. In a sense we can divide the agents of political socialization
into two broad categories: the primary and the secondary.
CLARIFICATION
OF TERMS
Socio-Cultural
Context
Socio-cultural context
refers to the idea that language, rather than existing in isolation, is closely
linked to the culture and society in which it is used. This means when language
is learnt, the socio-cultural context in which it is used needs to be taken
into consideration as well.
Sociocultural
context refers to the intersection of the social and cultural events of a
certain time period that inform various phenomena such as art and political
dealings. Of course,
sociocultural context varies across cultures, nations, time periods and many
other factors. A set of beliefs, customs, practices and behavior that exists within a population. International companies often include an examination of the
Political Behavior
According
to Eldersveld and Katz in 1961, political behaviour or behavioral approach to
the study of politics “identifies the behaviour of individuals or group of
individuals as the primary unit of analysis”.
It “seeks to examine the behaviour, actions and acts of individuals,
rather than characteristics of institutions such as legislature, executive and
judiciary”. Traditionally, the study of
politics was legalistic, normative and based on institutions, and this
certainly made it challenging for the discipline to fully explain and
understand the behaviour of people within their political environments. It was
the need to overcome this shortcoming and achieve a better understanding of
politics that gave birth to the “behavioral revolution”. This was a banner
under which sociologists, survey researchers and other empiricists gathered in
the 1950s to distinguish themselves from those who studied constitutions,
philosophy, or history, and prominent scholars who championed the revolution are
Robert Dahl (1961), and David Easton (1961).
The main aim of political behavior is to “explain behaviour with an
unbiased, neutral point of view, using methods such as sampling, scaling
statistical analysis and interviewing among others. The most practical way to
do it is to focus on individuals and groups who are the actors in
politics.
However,
subsequent scholarly definitions of political behaviour seem to have expanded
beyond the issue of method and approach.
The current state of political behaviour, as some scholars now claim, is
typically concerned with individual behaviour in the society. One of
such scholars is Richard Rose who, in her 2007 work claims that political
behaviour is the study of the behaviour
of political factors such as voters, lobbyists, and politicians.
From whichever angle it is defined, what you need to really grasp is
that political behaviour studies the behaviour of individuals and groups
towards politics and political institutions in their environment, and it
attempts to use scientific methods to study them.
Political activities
Political activities attempts to incite or organize the
public to put pressure on elected representatives or public officials to
retain, oppose, or change any law, policy, or decision of any level of
government in any jurisdiction.
POLITICAL
ACTIVITIES AND BEHAVIOR IN NIGERIA
According
to Akindele (1990) corruption in Nigeria include among others: Corruption
ascendancy to political leadership through election rigging and genocidal
political techniques; son of the soil philosophy; politics of expediency;
doctrine of ten per centers, judicial fractionalization of human beings;
political self-aggrandizement; political Hitlerism as a mechanism for retention
of power; replacement of “we-feeling” by “me-feeling”, contractorcontrolled
political machinery, uncurtailed lust for wealth, giving and receiving of
kickbacks for government contracts, Police insistence on taking bribes as
precondition for performing their duties, Bureaucrats indulgence in the act of
falsifying accounts, false declaration of assets, violation of oaths of office,
payment of money for government jobs not done or not well executed, penrobbery
and looting of the public treasury.
Babalola
(1995) argued that corruption in politics occurs at two levels. The first level
has to do with the various forms of corruption in politics at the lawmaking
level while the second level is at the law-implementation level. At the first
level, people try to influence law-making and policy decisions while at the
second level, efforts are made by people to pervert the course of justice and
influence judgements.
Summarily
then, the perpetration of corruption in politics is done in the following ways:
(a)
In voting there is outright buying of votes
or even voters’ cards during elections. The electorates are induced or
‘settled’ with some form of gratification usually money.[i]
(b)
Connivance with and the “settlement” of
electoral officials in order to manipulate or falsify election figures. A
glowing example was the 1983 elections in the second republic when the
government in power manipulated election results with the connivance of
electoral officials (FEDECO[ii]).
(c)
Outright rigging of elections through other
means such as thievery, threats to life, all forms of intimidation and the
likes.
(d)
Use of the power of incumbency and the state machinery.
There is the ‘Iron Law of African politics’ which states that no government in
power ever loses election. Office holders therefore makes use of all the
available weapons at their disposal to suppress opposition and win elections at
all cost.
(e)
Use of money. Money is now a crucial and the
most potent factor in Nigeria politics. The system does not make political
aspiration available to everybody; it is available only to the rich and
powerful. This is so, with the councillorship or the presidency of country, it
is the same. You must be rich, powerful and well connected. No matter how
popular you are, how credible or patriotic you are, your honour, reputation,
integrity, records and desire to render selfless services, if you do not have
money, you are a joker. Elective posts usually go to the highest bidder.
Elections and Electoral Behaviour
This
is the aspect that has so far commanded the highest level of attention from
behavioral researchers, perhaps because it is often contained in the constitutions
of democratic states, or it is a device instituted by the ruling class for
peaceful and conservative transfer of political power, as against revolt and
revolutions which are often not in their interest. Election refers to
organization of voting and its allied activities such as party registration,
candidates’ background checks and
campaigning. According to Nie and Verba
in their 1975 work, elections are “one of those legal activities by private
citizens which are more or less aimed at directly influencing the selection of
government personnel and the actions they take”. Today, as another scholar has
observed, “there are more and more
democratic elections all over the world in which candidates must decided not only
which candidate they wish to support, but also, and perhaps more fundamentally,
whether they wish to support anyone, that is, whether they wish to vote or
not”. These are the words of Blais in his 2007 article titled Turnout in Elections.
On
the other hand, the ways people behave towards election as well as the various
factors that affect or determine their behaviors under different circumstances
are all issues of electoral behaviour. The systematic and scientific study of
elections is known as psephology.
THE
SOCIO AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AND BEHAVIOR IN NIGERIA
The
institutionalization of corruption in Nigeria is not without its telling
effects on the emerging political culture and behaviour. Corruption has been on
for so long in Nigeria as Akindele (1990, 1995) has aptly demonstrated through
a retrospective analysis of politics from independence to date. He stated that
no regime can be exonerated from corruption. It has now reached unprecedented
levels most especially during the Babangida regime which saw the
institutionalization of the ‘statement’ syndrome. The on-going political
transition has not in any way been free from corruption too as the government
is busy manipulating the transition to facilitate the self-succession bid of
the ruling dictator.
Corruption
now appears to have become a permanent feature of the Nigerian polity. It had
become completely institutionalized, entered into the realm of culture and the
value-system; it is now a norm and no longer an aberration. The young ones are
born into it, grew up in it, lived with it, and possibly die in it. The aged
are not left out as they are resocialised and begins to conform to it.
Succeeding generations now see it as part and parcel of the social order and
the normative system. Cultural transmission takes place and as such behavioural
traits which confirms with corruption begins to emerge
Primary Agents of Political Socialization
The
primary agents of political socialization are those that people first come
across when they are children and they unavoidably interact with as they grow.
Almost all human beings pass through these agents, though not necessarily on
their will. The primary agents of political socialization in today’s world
include the family, the school, the peer group and the religious gatherings. In
the contemporary world these socialization agencies can hardly be avoided, and
they affect people’s believes and attitudes towards politics. In what follows we shall discuss these agents
one after the other.
(a) The Family:
The
family is a principal agent of political socialization, or any other form of
socialization at all. In fact, M. Kent
Jennings in his 2007 work titled Political
Socialization asserts that "from the early scholarly inquiries on
through to the present time, the role of the family as a prime agent of
socialization has occupied an imports in the literature". This is because
the family is a relatively small and enduring institution that makes the
processes of learning and imitation easier. Apart from this, the family is the
first point of call of the individual, and, to that extent, it determines a lot
about individual's behaviour; including the political. Above all, every human
being, by no choice of theirs, is presumably born into a family, so, except in
few cases, every human being passes through the socialization of the family.
(b) The School
Formal educational
system organized in forms of schools and colleges is a common phenomenon in the
modern world. In fact, most advanced countries of the world are beginning to
lay claim to zero percent illiteracy level in their society while third world
countries are following suit. The
implication of this is that everyone in the society will now have to pass
through one form of school or the other. Thus, the school, like the family, is
an agent of socialization that is almost impossible to escape. Some societies
deliberately teach subjects such as civil education, political history and
government to educate their citizens on politics. National anthems and other
extra curriculum exercises are basically performed in schools to expose students
to certain values about politics. What most people know and believe about
politics is therefore, especially in today’s world, a function of school
attendance. The school then qualifies as a primary agency of political
socialization.
(c) The Peer Group
Man,
by nature, Aristotle has long insisted, is a political animal. What you get
from this is that man is a gregarious being that love to live with, and around
other men. In the process of this social interaction peer groups are formed.
These groups consist of people of same or close age brackets, and members of
the groups learn many things socially from one another through emulation and
reciprocal determinism. If a person belongs to a peer group that is politically
conscious for instance, the tendency of the person to become very active and
interested in the politics of his nation is very high due to the kind of
socialization received in the course of interacting with his or her peers. Peer
group is also a primary agent of political socialization because it is
difficult to escape in the process of existing in the society. Even schools
where the child is socialized is full of peer group influence, though many peer
groups also exist outside the school.
(d) Religious Gatherings
Apart from the family and the school,
organized religious gathering is another very strong agency of political
socialization in the modern world. It is almost inescapable today. When people
gather in the name of religion, they often inevitably discuss socio political
issues that concern them directly or indirectly, politics being, according to
David Easton, “authoritative allocation of values in the society”. Values that
may be authoritatively allocated to, or omitted from people’s homes, families,
streets, work places, states of residence, international relation and so on,
often make people relate with politics even in religious gatherings where they
are supposed to be worshiping. Today is universities, religious associations
sponsor candidates into elective positions in order to gain influence. Citizens
of some countries consider the religious affiliation of a political candidate
as determinant of his or her capacity to rule, and such beliefs color behaviour
even in elections. The discussions and
decision on these political issues are often taken in religious gatherings;
hence, religion becomes a strong agent of political socialization.
Subordinate Agents of Political Socialization
Structures and institutions
such as the media and political parties are not common to all men; they are
optional, so they belong to the secondary political socialization agents. Other
ones in this category are gender and age which are though common to all men,
yet, do not command strong
organizational political influence that, say, the church
and the school may have. Let us examine
these four agents of political socialization in details.
Race and Ethnicity
As a general rule, for the past
half-century African Americans have been the most loyal Democrats than any
other identifiable group. Some experts believe that this loyalty is weakening,
but recent elections have confirmed the strong tendency for black Americans to
vote Democratic. Latinos as a whole have a tendency to vote Democratic, but the
relationship is not as strong as it is for blacks. To further complicate
matters, the various Latino groups have very different voting patterns. For
example, Cuban Americans overall have a strong tendency to vote Republican, and
Mexican Americans have an equally strong tendency to vote Democratic. Some
studies indicate that Asian Americans tend to vote conservative, but there is
still a lack of concrete evidence to prove this.
The Media
The media is a strong agent of political socialization. The print media
produces newspapers and magazines while the electronic media comes in forms of
radio and television. In all of these media politics and political issues are
discussed in daily basis. In fact, it has been argued by Allan Smith that the 21st century press media
is a political media as majority of the news items are either completely
political or are connected to politics.
The most recent one is the social media: the facebook and the twitters
that are fast penetrating the whole world.
Issues discussed in all these media create values, attitudes and
believes in people, and as such, stand as means of socializing them into
politics as well as influencing their political behaviour.
Political Party
A political party is an organized body of people who participate in
political activities with the sole aim of getting political power. Membership
of a political party automatically translates to discussion and practice of
political activities, with all the pranks, and the intrigues. People who belong
to political parties learn a great deal of their political tricks, values,
orientations, opinions and believes from them, so, the political party is a
very strong agent of political socialization. In specific terms, political
parties have orientations and ideological divides. There are left wing parties,
right wing parties, mass parties and so on, and the orientation that is dominant
in each of these parties are systematically handed down to their members from
one generation to another. In Britain you have the conservative (right wing)
and the labour (left wing) political parties. In the United States it is
between the Republican (right wing) and the Democrat (left wing) parties.
Although Nigerian political parties have been unstable and episodic since
independence, the current ideological divide still stands between the PDP and
the APC.
Gender
Until
recently when universal adult suffrage has permeated the whole world, gender
was a very key issue in political socialization. In the earlier Athenian
society in Greece, women were not allowed to participate in politics, and so it
was in some other parts of the world. The implication is that men would be
differently socialized to form different believes opinions and orientation of
politics, compared to women. Now that the dichotomy is changing rapidly, and
universal adult suffrage is gaining popularity around the world; women’s
socialization in politics is fast taking different dimension. Conversely, in
the old
Oyo kingdom where women were known to
occupy important political positions such as Iyalode, Iyaloja and Iyalaje, and
where they exerted great influence in the politics of their people, there was a
difference in gender relationship with politics, and this created egalitarian
and democratic values among the people.
You may wish to read Eesuola’s Using Indigenous Political Structures to
Facilitate Democratic Ideals in Nigeria: Lessons from Pre Colonial Yoruba
Kingdom, published in the University of Lagos, Nigeria, Sociological Review,
Volume 9, 2011.
Age
Also unlike gender, age was and is
still a strong factor in the politics of courtiers. Today, as a result of
universal adult suffrage, most constitutions allow citizens of eighteen years
to vote and be voted for. In some countries where gerontology is common in
political activities, only old people take certain electoral positions in
politics. These different practices in different societies often shape opinions
and orientations of people towards politics, so, age is equally an agent of
political socialization.
Let
us also quickly add that socialization may involve an individual's formative
years, or his mature years, or both. Political socialization through the
primary agency is not only latent, but
also tends to occur during the formative years of an individual. Political socialization through secondary
agencies, on the other hand, tends to be manifest and to occur during an
individual's relatively mature years.
Political socialization can
produce either systemic or non-systemic change. Systemic change refers to a
fundamental or far-reaching change in the distribution or exercise of authority
in the political system. Non-systemic change, on the other hand, refers to
relatively insignificant or incremental changes in the patterns of political
participation and association which do not alter or upset the existing
distribution of power and authority in the polity. Indeed, generally speaking,
political socialization is essentially a stabilizing process and hardly
produces systemic change. The political socialization process becomes
destabilizing, or produces systemic change, only under conditions of rapid
modernization or general societal crisis.
CONCLUSION
These are the major issues that are critical and central
to political behavior. They include political socialization, political culture
and political participation, which, on its own can be regular and irregular,
then, political communication as well as elections. What we have done in the foregoing is
identify the main thrusts of political behaviour: political socialization,
political culture, political participation, political communication and
elections. Each of these aspects is
merely mentioned and briefly discussed. They have several factors that
determine them and many dimensions they take. These wider issues will be
covered in the subsequent units. In summary, take a
look at your life today, the foregoing four structures family, school, peer
groups- that is friends and colleagues-
as well as your religious gathering are four structures that you constantly
interact with almost on weekly basis, and in all of them, it is almost certain
that politics is discussed either directly or indirectly. This makes the four
of them primary agents of political socialization. In what follows however, we
shall discuss four more agents of socialization that are not as central to man
as the ones considered as primary.
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