STRANICKÉ PREFERENCE MLADÝCH LIDÍ V ČESKÉ REPUBLICE

The influence of early attitudes formed in childhood on adult political behaviour has led many scholars to examine political socialisation effects. To date there has been limited research on political socialization processes in post-communist countries. This paper presents party preferences of Czech youth and consequently focuses on the influence of two key channels of political socialization, i.e. the family and school, on the party preferences of young (pre- or first time) voters in the Czech Republic. Use is made of data from a unique large survey of 17 to 19 year old high school students (N=1735) fielded in 2012. A series of models estimated using multinomial regression with random intercept shows that in spite of significant differences in party support across the three main types of high schools examined, the impact of family background is stronger than that of school environment. This study argues that school environment has only a small independent effect. Parents influence their offspring directly as well as indirectly by selecting the school that their children attend; and consequently school effects partly reflect political orientations originating in households.