Political Socialization of Young People in the New Federal States of the Federal Republic of Germany (Brandenburg), in Israel and on the West Bank

This study was funded as an extension of the study Political Socialization of High School Students under the Influence of School, Parents, Peers and Social Milieu . In the three regions and political cultures, which were compared in this study, the socialization of young people to become supporting members of a civil society in the sense of Western democracies is politically intended and necessary for the democratic development of these countries, but is endangered due to transformation processes and crisis-ridden developments. The study compares the processes of political socialization in Israel and the Palestinian territories with regard to the chances of the peace process and the peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians in democratic states. The two parallel Brandenburg studies (high school students at the University of Potsdam, young people in vocational training at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences) are intended to provide a standard of comparison, characterized by the fact that, on the one hand, conditions are more peaceful than in the Middle East, but that, on the other hand, despite the more continuous transformation processes, young people's identification with democratic institutions and their willingness to participate in democracy are also at risk. The idea took up from the Brandenburg study is that the socializing influences of three contexts-parents, peers, and school/vocational training-are compared longitudinally. The comparison of the relative influence of these three contexts in the three regions is intended to contribute to basic research in the field of political socialization theory.