The Social Background And Theoretical Basis Of The Political Efficacy Research

Sense of political efficacy refers to ordinary citizens to take political action in a subjective judgment. The research started in the nineteen fifties in the USA, and it has the inseparable relationship with the United States’ economy, politics and culture. Especially, there are two American presidential elections in1948and1952, the main differences that the ordinary citizens faced up with the conflict and its coping methods have played a direct and promoting role in the sense of political efficacy research. At the same time, political efficacy on the rise also has deep theoretical foundations; it emphasizes the sovereignty of the people of the classical theory of democracy which is the political efficacy research Ideological source; the intermittent elections for the characteristic theory of liberal democracy as a political efficacy studies which provides direct power; the theory of participatory democracy is the political efficacy study that provides more extensive space; the theory of political culture as the sense of political efficacy studies have provided the most direct theoretical support; Besides, the attitude and behavior theory is the direct theoretical basis to the sense of political efficacy research.Through analyzing the information about sense of political efficacy, this paper draw a conclusion:So far, foreign scholars’ ideas on political efficacy mainly contains the following three aspects, the single dimension of sense of political efficacy, two dimension of political efficacy and three meaning of sense of political efficacy. Through deep analysis, the change of the United States’social structure is the historical background of the sense of political efficacy studies, scholars’concern about the future of democratic political and the situation change from the United States’two presidential elections which took place before and after the fifties is the realistic background of the sense of political efficacy study. In the meantime, democratic theory, political cultural theory and attitude behavior theory are the theoretical basis of the research on political efficacy.