Beliefs About Democracy Among English Adolescents: What Significance Have They?

Abstract

In the last decade, a large volume of research and speculation concerned with the beliefs and attitudes of the mass and the elite about democracy, has been published.1 Parallel with this trend has been a growing interest in political socialization. It is not surprising, therefore, that some work has concentrated on the attitudes of adolescents towards democracy and the patterns of development of such attitudes.2 The genesis of this interest can be found in the belief that a knowledge of what people in a democracy think about democracy can help us understand its operation and predict its future development. My aim in this Note is to look briefly at two pieces of work which are concerned with English adolescents in order to discuss the intellectual limitations of frameworks devoted to exploring this interest.