Party choice and family influence in the age of modernity: Students`reflections as first-time voters in a Norwegian parliamentary election

This paper describes how young, first-time voters reflect on the sources of influence on their party choice, as they for the first time approach a (recent 2013) parliamentary election in Norway. Party identification has traditionally been seen as a result of social (class) identity or professional belonging as well of family influence. This is well documented by the Michigan school of political research in the sixties (Converse, 1960; Holmberg, 2008). This view has led to the much tested hypothesis of transfer of political orientations from one generation to another (Jennings & Niemi 1974). Later, modernists like Giddens (1991) or Beck (1986) argued that social and political orientations are first and foremost characterized by reflexivity. This imply that young people’s social and political orientations are above all a result of their reflections of self, their identity, and perceptions of whom they wish to constitute themselves as. In this process, upbringing and cultural background are less predominant, which lead to the hypothesis that; young people’s choice of party as first time voters is first and foremost a result of their self-reflections and search for their political self. A selection of 30 first-time voters in upper secondary school was interviewed about their party choice. In the analytical procedures we read and coded the interviews on self-reported family influence and self-reported reflexivity. We found that young voters reflect considerably on their choices, but the influence of family environment was surprisingly strong. A majority of the voters reported that their upbringing has had strong influence on their orientations, particularly where parents showed great political interest. In the analysis of voters´ reasoning, all of the voters somehow acted rationally using available information from a variety of sources for reflective purposes. Particularly, these first-time voters reflected on party choice and their political self, but the family influence was most often voiced as the basis of their reflections. This way the hypothesised family influence is supported more strongly than the modernity hypothesis. We suggest that political education should take account of this and allow for reflexivity in the formation of the students´ political self. Keywords: Political identity, first-time voters, Voter Advice Applications, participation, social studies, voter education.