Political Socialisation And Recruitment

We have already discussed the socialisation and recruitment functions of the political system. TTiey are really the functions of citizenship training and recruitment into political roles. They are functions of its structure and culture, mainly by the socialising influences of the primary and secondary structures through which the children and the young pass and which continue throughout adult life. These structures are the family, the school, the religious bodies, the work groups, voluntary associations and the media of communication such as press, radio, TV., etc., die political parties and interest groups as well as the governmental institutions. It means that socialisation is the process of induction into the political culture, which is either latent, as in family life, or manifest, as in a political party.

The process of socialisation differs in different kinds of political systems. In traditional political system, it is particularistic, diffuse and ascriptive, that is to say, it is influenced by kinship relations of castes and tribes, and other traditional groups. In a modem political system, socialisation is more universalistic, manifest, rational, secular, and achievement-oriented.

Almond writes, “If political socialisation produces the basic attitudes in a society towards the political system, its various roles, and public policy, then by studying political culture and political socialisation we can gain understanding of one of the essential conditions which affect the way in which these roles are performed, and the kinds of political inputs and output which these roles produce.”

Political recruitment takes up where political socialisation leaves off. The induction of the individuals into various political roles is also influenced by the kind cr type a political system is. In traditional political groups, recruitment is on the basis of family, caste, baradaries and tribes and on kinship and social status, while in the modem societies it is made on die basis of political party membership, achievement performance, etc.

Interest articulation:

The first input function is interest articulation. It means the formulation and expression of claims and demands by the individuals or groups in the environment (society) for political action. Interests are articulated by legislatures, political executives, bureaucracies, armies, religious bodies or churches.

They also include such groups and interests which stir up riots, demonstrations, strikes, etc. There are four kinds of such groups: (1) institutional interest groups like legislatures (2) associational interest groups, like political parties, trade unions, traders and industrialist chambers, etc; (3) anomic interest groups, e.g. riot-causing groups, and (4) non-associational interest groups, e.g. kinship and lineage groups such as tribes, castes, etc., ethnic, regional, religious and class groups. The style of expressing interests may be manifest or latent, oven or covert, specific or diffuse, general or particular, instrumental or affective. For instance, too much expression or articulation of the anomic interest groups, causing riots, etc., would become a problem for the political system to maintain the boundary between it and the environment, between the polity and the society and also between it and die neighbouring political systems, which may intervene in it directly by war and aggression or indirectly by encouraging terrorists and extremists or the like

Interest aggregation:

Interest articulation leads to interest aggregation. It means that die articulated or expressed claims and demands of the groups and individuals are combined, accommodated and compromised. Thus they become inputs of the conversion process. Some claims or demands may be so forceful or urgent that they become intensified interests, which cannot be ignored by the governmental conversion process.

The intensification may be due to influential families, castes or tribes, as in a traditional political system, or may be due to influential leaders, charismatic leaders, political parties, or interest or pressure groups, as in the modem political systems. Almond gives the example of Great Britain, where political parties act as powerful articulative and aggregative groups, while in Bharat the castes, especially the Brahmin and Bania castes, play this input function.

 

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