The current American political landscape is experiencing unprecedented levels of polarization. The effects of polarization have influenced the process of family socialization, which is the development of its cultural and personal identity (Iyengar et al. 1326). On an individual level, certain factors influence a person’s political participation. Such factors can be age, wealth, education, race, friends, family, community, and historical context.
A decisive factor that shaped my political participation is wealth and my perception of the lack of wealth distribution in the US. Growing up in a normal middle-class neighborhood where most people had the same income, I was unaware of the vast differences in prosperity that plague our country. In communities where most people have the same income, there is much less strife and jealousy than in a national context, where we see considerable differences between rich and poor. Thus, reshaping the current political system to address the wealth distribution issues in our country has been a key reason for my political involvement.
Friends have also been an important factor in shaping my political involvement. With most of my friends coming from similar backgrounds as myself, we have shared and challenged each other’s political views. This has helped me develop a stronger conviction of my political views having to argue and defend said arguments in public. Additionally, I have many friends from abroad that have shared their views and perceptions of their country’s political systems, which have given me additional inspiration for alternative political systems one could implement in the US.
I believe education has shaped my political participation in most recent years. Taking an education, a person learns to think more critically about their own and others’ opinions. Even more important, you learn that there are no black-and-white solutions to the complex problem that faces our nation today. Education also introduces you to models and frameworks to judge political policy more competently with regard to economics and science.
Thus, the three major individual factors have shaped my political participation, namely wealth, friends, and education. The main driver for my political participation is wealth distribution issues, American and international friends, and the critical thinking derived from education. I expect different factors will shape my political participation as I age, such as family-related policy and community, given that they will be a central part of my life at a later stage.
Work Cited
Iyengar, Shanto, Konitzer, Tobias, and Tedin Kent. “The Home as a Political Fortress: Family Agreement in an Era of Polarization.” The Journal of Politics, vol. 80, no. 4, 2018, pp. 1326-1338.