Socialization, Alienation, and Student Activism

Abstract

Studies of student activists, especially those of Flacks (1967) and Keniston (1968), have demonstrated the importance of familial socialization experiences in the biographies of these young persons. Parents of protesters are typically uppermiddle-class professionals of liberal political persuasions, decision-making in the family is democratic, and children are encouraged to develop a sense of responsibility to others as well as a capacity to be self-reliant. Growing up in this milieu is viewed as a natural prelude to campus activism. The idealistic, left-liberal political orientations and nonauthoritarian personality traits of individuals reared in such families clash head on with inaccessible bureaucratic elites as well as with the realities of a society that has failed to realize its democratic and egalitarian ideals. Given the characteristics of activists and the structural properties of societal institutions, protest behavior is understandable, if not inevitable.AUTHORS' NOTE: This paper has been greatly improved as a result o careful readings and incisive comments provided