CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICS

This chapter reviews investigations into the development of political knowledge conducted within the fields of political science and developmental psychology. First it outlines the purposes and the theoretical frameworks of the different waves of research that followed from the1950s. It then describes how political knowledge (intended as knowledge of political institutions and their operation, as well as political value and ideology) is understood from early childhood to adolescence. In keeping with the domain-specific approach to cognitive development, the chapter tracks the main steps through which a conceptual domain of politics is constructed gradually. Its early antecedents are naïve psychology and the notions of rule, authority, and personal issue, found even in pre-schoolers. A naïve economy emerges, based on the notions of work, money and societal role, during the first years of elementary school. Private and public roles are differentiated, but the full emergence of a naïve political theory, with the concept of nation-state at its core, does not appear to take place before 10 to11 years of age. Lastly, the chapter discusses the effects of contextual variables, including what may be expected from improved teaching of politics and civics.