An individual’s political opinions start in the home with the family through listening and observing the family members. This later on compounds through interactions with friends, co-workers, etc. This is how a person acquires their believes and opinions about politics through their social environments. This process is called political socialization. Since the US electorate is made up individuals, all of whom go through political socialization, it makes sense that this would influence their decisions and they could in turn use that to influence the public’s opinion through polling and media. This can be a negative or a positive thing depending on whether or not their political socialization has them acting in the interest of the common good or in self-interest. The checks and balances of the Maddisonian Model help to ensure against the more negative effects by having different government branches that can check the branches that may become too heavy comprised of officials seeking self-interest.
Since it is something that affects all of us, we’ll look at political socialization closer. Political socialization starts with the family. The family talks about their political views, beliefs and policies while the children listen. This is usually an individual’s first introduction to politics. When children start school they may come into contact with the politics of peers, teachers and other parents. These may not be the same as their parents. As children grow into adults they get more exposure to politics through co-workers, classes, media, etc. The electoral college is electors appointed by their states to vote for the president and vice-president. If an elector has been raised in a political environment in which the good of the people is what is best, they will portray candidates to the people in their state fairly through the media and then use appropriate polling to figure out who the people want. (Appropriate polling will be discussed later). If they were raised in a more self-fulfilling political environment, it may cause electors to make candidates look un-rightly bad or good in the media, they can take advantage of polling or they can even go against the polling results entirely. An example of this is Bush Vs. Gore. Gore won the popular votes with the public but since Bush won the electoral votes he became the president.
When looking at political socialization with the elector specifically in mind, this can be further explored by seeing how it adds to or detracts from the Maddisonian model of government. It adds to the Maddisonian model of government by showing us that the checks and balances system of the model work. It does this by maintaining and checking the three branches of government. This ensures that should any one branch become filled with individuals with a political nature that promotes self-interest, the balances will keep the entire government from becoming corruptible and help to protect the citizens. This can detract from the Maddisonian model of government however if all three of the branches become filled with individuals serving their own self-interests. Although this is unlikely it is possible because political socialization occurs at an individual level and because people tend to flock towards people of like-minded political beliefs.
The way this this can be prevented is through accurate polling and media. Since the media is corporate owned and a lot of corporations are aligned with self-serving political individuals, the media can be controlled from the public to only hear what people want them to. Positive people will use this to make sure that the public is getting all of the accurate information that it needs in order to make an informed decision. Self-serving people will often skew the media so that the public will make poor choice. This happens often in the arena of politics, wars and disasters. In order for media to be a helpful tool it needs to be accurate and truthful (remember omission is still a lie). This way the government stays one for the people and by the people.
In order for polling to be helpful to the American people, we need to consider sample size and the population polled. Unless there is a large sample size and equal amount of different types of people being polled, then the results would be inaccurate which means that they can be easily skewed.
In conclusion, the Maddisonian model is added to if an individual’s political socialization had been a positive one where the focus is democracy and the good of a people. If individual’s political socialization was a negative one and the individuals are focused on self-serving needs, then the Maddisonian model of government is detracted from. This is true because it is individuals that make up the groups that act as our branches of government. Also, it is important when allowing your opinion to be subjected by the media and polling, the make sure that what you are listening to is accurate and truthful so that you can make the best informed decisions that you can.
