Families and the Development of Support for Democracy

• In Event: All the Young Dudes: Youth Voting in Europe

Abstract

Questions about family history, childhood experiences with parenting styles and gender equality at home are never asked in cross-sectional surveys that measure political attitudes, such as support for democracy. Additionally, no survey has yet focused on measuring resistance to/support for democratic backsliding as observed in empirical reality and operationalized in the literature. Some of the socialization questions are asked in the longitudinal surveys (i.e., National Longitudinal Study of Youth in the US), but these surveys do not include extensive and consistent measures of political attitudes and behaviors, especially support for democracy or democratic backsliding. Theories of political and gender socialization along with feminist theories posit that the effects of early gender and political socialization and experiences in the family are long-lasting. Thus, it is hypothesized that immunity against support for democratic backsliding may be found in childhood experiences. Using newly collected nationally representative survey data spanning eight European countries, the study will test this hypothesis. The study makes a novel contribution to our understanding of the understudied mechanisms that shape support for democracy.

Author

• Vera Beloshitzkaya, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg