Political Ideology and Military Service

Abstract

Time spent in the military has the ability to guide service members with political characteristics that influence voting behavior and political involvement throughout life. The objective of this thesis is investigating the relationship between military service and their personal political ideology. This thesis will address political socialization as an agent, while truly understanding the difficulty in what time spent in the service has. The research questions addressed are: How much does military service contribute to an individual’s political ideology? and, Does military service alter an individual’s political belief from a neutral or liberal perspective to a more conservative view? The variables of political socialization are as vast as our imagination, and is a constant changing process. The course from which we form our political views is indicative of the social constructs from which we are subjected to. The ebbs and flows of life experiences is for the most part planned. To what extent our life experiences shape our views could never be calculated. There are, however, variables that can be applied to almost all human life such as our peers, family, institutions, education, strife, success, struggle, and perseverance. Most can understand that family and school are important early in life. Later as adults; peers, literature, education, and socioeconomic status is more impressionable. This research aims to discover military service as an agent with the ability to frame forming opinions. Military service is not a rare human experience of itself, but is rare in its ability to hold all of the above variables in a complete surrounding environment. Military service has the unique ability to sever ties from outside influence, inhabit complete social submersion, force uniformity in thought, regularity in action, all during the time an individual is most impressionable towards political ideas. This is interesting as it tests a full immersion political socialization environment to what we label ourselves in the grand scheme of political constructs over a life time.