Socialization in Times of Elections: A Field Experiment on the Impact of Civic Education

Valérie-Anne Mahéo (Université de Montréal)

Dimarts 15 de maig, 13:00, Sala de Juntes de la Facultat de Ciència Política i Sociologia de la UAB.

 
With a large-scale experiment in Quebec’s elementary schools during the 2017 municipal electoral campaign, I aim to contribute to the fields of political socialization and behavior in several ways. First, I question the assumption that political learning may only -or mainly- happen during adolescence, and examine political learning among pre-adolescent children. Secondly, this study presents a social and dynamic perspective of political socialization and political behavior, where actors of socialization have reciprocal interactions, and adult citizens’ behavior is not immune to the influences of their social network, in this case their children. Finally, I overcome the limits of past observational and quasiexperimental studies by providing causal evidence of the effects of civic education.