‘Complex Socialization’: A Framework for the Study of State Socialization

The article presents a model for the study of norms transfer through state socialization, which combines a Social Constructivist body of theory for ideational change with Social Identity Theory (SIT) for identity formation. The model privileges self- and other categorization processes which according to SIT takes place between all social groups, as the main determinant for the outcome of state socialization. By also reconceptualizing domestic structure into two separate we-groups; state/elite and nation/people, which may have different self- and other categorization dynamics, the model is able to not only account for the common occurrence of different outcomes of socialization in apparently similar cases, but is also able to take the mass domestic level into consideration. The question that is asked is therefore ‘why do the same norms matter so differently to apparently similar agents?’