Learning democracy in Mexico and the United States

This essay explores how Americans, Mexican Americans, and Mexicans learn about politics, and specifically, their notions of democracy, using a comprehensive cross-national survey funded by the Hewlett Foundation. It identifies significant differences and similarities across groups, and raises important questions about the socialization process, about the resistance of certain attitudes to transformation in new cultural settings, and the ease with which major political views are altered within months of changing national residence. Language facility proves to be a significant variable in this process.