Why some people value political engagement and even find pleasure in engaging with politics while others hardly bother about the political domain, is a crucial question for the functioning of democratic societies. In my dissertation, I investigate what we can learn from motivation studies (largely neglected by political scientists) to understand the roots of political engagement. My contribution is to investigate the nonpolitical origins of political engagement in early childhood experiences, more specifically, the level of need satisfaction provided in the parental home during socialization’s formative phase.
I had the opportunity to write about these thoughts and the findings from two analyses of longitudinal cohort data at the ISSP blog. Please feel free to provide any comments and criticism.
