In the system of political processes, political socialization occupies a special place for the reason that this process is inherent in all people without exception and continues throughout life. Often you have to hear speculation, statements from an individual about his political exclusion. They say that they are not interested in politics, are not engaged in political activities and generally that politics is not interested. Yes, you may not be interested in politics as such. But no one can exclude himself from the system of political relations . The political sphere of society is as objective as the rest - economic, social and spiritual-cultural. And that is precisely why no one can "get out" of it, just as one cannot refuse to consume products, communicate, and learn the skills of interaction with other people.
This objective presence of people in political reality reflects such a phenomenon as political socialization.
In the simplest sense, this phenomenon can be considered as a derivative of the general socialization of the individual. The main difference is that political socialization involves the assimilation by the individual of a narrower and more specific set of values and norms - political. During this process, the individual forms a certain system of political values, orientations, preferences, and then attitudes, which determine the degree of his involvement in real political life. This is characterized by a different concept - political participation.
The content of political socialization consists of laws, norms and rules of political activity, stereotypes and patterns of political behavior and political thinking, ideas, theories, political programs and symbols, and much more, which in the end allows you to formulate criteria for attitude to power and provide your own political identification.
A person assimilates these attributes in the course of a bilateral process, which is political socialization. On the one hand, the person himself is present in it, on the other hand, sources - parents, a team of classmates, teachers, and teachers. However, the main agents of political socialization are political institutions: the state, parties, social movements and organizations.
From the bilateral nature also follow those social functions that this process performs. First of all, it is an orientation function that allows an individual to be more or less determined in the political space and time. Secondly, it is a function of adaptation and aggregation, which allows a person to have the skills to perform certain meaningful actions within the political reality. These actions are reflected, as a rule, through the role behavior of the individual.
For all the subjectivity of the process, the political socialization of the individual has some regularities that make it possible to distinguish two main types in the course of it.
The primary phase involves the formation of the individual's initial ideas about politics at the level of symbols, collective actions under the guidance of someone, the formation of personal criteria for assessing political reality. As a rule, these qualities are characterized by the political socialization of youth.
In the course of the secondary stage, the formation of a holistic political culture of a person, a personality takes place, which helps him to identify himself in the political space absolutely completely and make informed decisions.
It is at this stage that the attitude to politics as a social phenomenon is formed, a person determines the measure of his political participation and forms of political behavior. The process under consideration is not the same for all people and societies; therefore, there is a classification of types of political socialization. The following are distinguished: harmonic, hegemonic, pluralistic, conflict types. It should be noted that virtually none of these types is manifested in a “pure form”, a person is formed under the influence of each of them.