The Study On Party Identification Process

This study is about the process of party identification, emphasizing on the influence of key eventsand operating mechanism in the process. Based on the social norm learning theory and socialidentification theory, this study focuses on undergraduate and postgraduate students in Beijing. The datawas obtained by literature analysis and deep interviews. The study has four results. Firstly, the processof party identification has three steps, including compliance, conviction and believe. In compliance,without the necessary knowledge of Chinese Communist Party, the individuals want to join it because ofpopular response or obedience. In conviction, the individuals enhance their emotional closeness of CCPfor admiring some party members or understanding the necessity of party norms. In believe, theindividuals consciously follow and belong to the party based on approving of its value. Secondly, everystep of party identification is completed by categorization and social comparison. In the first step, theindividual enhances the similarity of party membership and the difference between CCP and otherpolitical groups. In the second step, the individual enhances the similarity of party members’ charactersand party identification in some significant social situations. In the third step, the individual enhancesthe difference between CCP members and non-CCP members. Furthermore, they have internalized theparty concept into some parts of their self concepts. Thirdly, everyone’s process of party identificationgoes by the general path above, no matter what identification levels they were at. The different resultsdepend on the influence of key events. Fourthly, the party identification process has three characters. Onone hand, the level may bring down during the process. However, it’s a rational choosing result and itwill be more stable and everlasting if the individual received proper guidance. On the other hand, theremay be cognitive dissonance phenomenon, which means non-CCP members are easier to evaluate theparty negatively while the CCP members put emphasis on the good events. What’s more, the processhas coexistence and leap-forward development. The different mechanism in the same level and thedifferent factors of different steps can coexist. At the same time, the process may begin at convictionstep or develop from compliance step into believe step directly. Based all above, we should createsignificant social situation by various methods so that we can enrich the individuals’ feeling of emotionand practice. In addition, we need pay attention to ethic political education and enrich the work ways. Atlast, we should guide the party member to develop into the believe step.