THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES IN POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION RESEARCH

This article contributes to the discussion on political socialization concept and research. The paper makes a critical insight in research history and development in the area of political socialization with the conclusions that there is no universal definition of political socialization and the field is still burdened by many theoretical and empirical controversies which could be resolved by examining causal mechanisms operating in the process of political socialization. The literature review describes the development of research in this field and shows that there is persistent need for retesting basic hypotheses. Showing the advantages and disadvantages of the panel data design the paper demonstrates why it is most suitable type of data for testing majority of the hypotheses of political socialization.