Abstract

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Title:: Identity and Power to Establish Institution: An InterpretativeMechanism of Anti-Political Socialization

Keywords:: identity; power to establish institution; anti-political socialization; interpretative mechanism

Abstract:: The theory of political socialization focuses on the stability and continuity of political system,including the process of microscopic observation of an individual’s acquisition of his political values andidentity and the transmission of ideology by the macro political system. However, this theory faces a theoreticaldifficulty in bridging the gap between the micro and the macro perspectives: i.e. how to explain the antipoliticalsocializations by the individual and by the collective. The theory of political socialization will explainindividual’s anti-political behavior if it is implanted with the mechanism of identity; it will also explain thecollective’s anti-political behavior if it incorporates the five steps of the general theory of institutional change.Combining identity with power to establish institution, the theory of political socialization can bridge the gapbetween the micro and the macro political systems, thus improving its interpretative mechanism for explainingboth the individual’s and the collective’s anti-political actions.