Political Socialization

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John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” The 2016 presidential election has set several questions for future elections in the United States of America. Many Americans that were upset about Hillary Clinton not winning the presidential election even though she won the popular vote, are trying to find ways to ratify the electoral college. One notable thing is that as the years advance, society’s ideas do too. This means that the interests of people constantly change. Not only does this set new boundaries for future campaigns, but the candidates would need to pay even closer attention to their roles and their beliefs to get the attention of different voters. …show more content…

Most of this comes from political socialization. Political socialization, as described in chapter 5, is the process in which people gain political beliefs and values (Ginsberg et. al. 2017:150). Contributors to this include family members and friends, so people around you could influence your voting likelihood depending on if they vote or not. Also, there are other factors such as, electoral laws and electoral rules that affect participation. Electoral laws and rules are set as standards that an individual must meet to vote. For example, the individual must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, and in some states, if the person is a felon, he cannot vote (Module 6 Lecture 2). Not everyone falls under these requirements and those who don’t will not be able to vote. There are also instances that people decide not to vote, whether they didn’t have time to register or just personal choice. This is completely unacceptable as the opinion of every eligible American matters. Voting likelihood has also been seen to be affected by race, gender, age, and economic status. Unlike the previous statement, these factors are uncontrollable and are based off studies that poll on the popularity of voters within these groups. All in all, the influence of electoral participation can be seen through individual ideologies that represent their political

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