Political socialization research holds the distinction of benefiting, possibly more fully than other subfields of study, from conceptual and empirical contributions from many academic disciplines. While the main emphases of scholars from different fields may reflect certain intradisciplinary perspectives, the cumulative product is distinctly interdisciplinary, as seen in the widescope of contemporary research findings. Educators have been concerned with the role of the schools in the political socialization process, while sociologists have directed attention more broadly toward the roles of many potential agencies of political socialization. Psychologists, focusing upon political socialization as a learning process, have directed attention to learning and developmental theories. Political scientists have examined both the antecedents and consequences of the socialization process.

Political Socialization: A Topical Bibliography.

1. Introduction: the ethnic effect 2. Ethnic attractors 3. Ethnic attractors and exogenous constraints 4. Ethnic voting in Romania 5. Ethnic voting and party system stability 6. Ethnic politics and access 7. The ethnic effect on regime stability 8. Conclusions.

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Ethnicity and electoral politics

Do minority civil servants actively represent the minority community more than white officials do ? Many observers express doubts. Clearly, there are formidable barriers to nonwhite civil servants acting as representatives of their racial groups. Nonetheless, existing evidence suggests that nonwhite officials do serve in this capacity under certain circumstances. A major task for students of public administration is to specify what these circumstances are. The author notes several societal and job related factors which increase prospects that minority officials will actively represent their racial communities.

Minority Groups in Public Bureaucracies: Are Passive and Active Representation Linked?

Weber's interpretation of the relationship between religious values and economic rationalism led observers of American society in the past to posit fundamental between-group differences in values to account for differing social and economic orientations of American religious groups, particularly those between Protestants and Catholics. This paper focuses on the relationship between religion and family life giving particular attention to parental values for children and approaches to child rearing. First, the differences in parental values that exist among religioethnic groups in American society and the changing role of religioethnic differences in shaping the child-rearing orientations of parents are examined. Data from Detroit surveys and other sources are used to demonstrate substantial changes in parental values across the past several decades. Also examined are reports of socialization practices, which reflect a high degree of similarity in patterns of behavior among religioethnic groups in modern so...

Religion and Parental Child-Rearing Orientations: Evidence of a Catholic-Protestant Convergence

This study explores whether boys and girls differ in their levels of political orientation and the extent to which race/ethnic heritage mediates such an association. We analyze survey data for 14,855 children across 20 states using a fixed-effects analytical technique that confines the children to their immediate environments. We find that girls surpass boys in political interest and activity, and this persists without a significant drop in teen years as might be expected. This pattern is evident whether political orientation is measured as a composite indicator or as discrete items tapping specific activities and opinions. Within subgroups, White and Native American girls consistently displayed higher levels of orientation than comparable boys. Among Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, observed advantages for girls attenuate with full specification of control variables; at worst, Black, Hispanic, and Asian girls are equally as political as comparable boys. These findings have implications for theorizing about political orientation in childhood.

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Gender and political orientation in childhood

A model is presented to analyze the transmission of political values across generational lines. The variables within the model are social class, parental value, family structure, and "ethnic heritage" (a residual variable). Political values do differ among ethnic groups both in the parental and adolescent generation. Ethnicity tends to be a stronger predictor of adolescent values than parental education. Some groups are more effective in transmitting values than others. While family structure does not shape the political values of the whole population, it does influence the transmission of values within certain ethnic groups.

Andrew M. Greeley

Papers

A Model for Ethnic Political Socialization.