Political consciousness cannot be measured according to any strict criteria, because it is not a 'hard fact' like the 'wage level' or 'gender representation in leadership'.
Like 'societal development', the processes of gaining political consciousness are non-linear, interactive and complex. Changes in consciousness or understanding of issues (whether social, economic, cultural, political or civil matters) can occur at many different times, can accelerate or decelerate due to all kind of factors.
Political consciousness varies and encompasses all the stages of the process of becoming politically conscious, so it cannot be merely captured, and cannot be expressed in a simple straightforward description.
People are involved in all sorts of different processes that might impacts on their consciousness and understandings. So, there is some difficulty in showing the cause of a particular form of political consciousness or understanding.
The analysis of political consciousness though would certainly involve educational activities and how people become aware from educational activities. It is education that enables a person to develop an analysis of their situation in society.
For political consciousness to be elaborated upon using external measures requires assessment procedures under a good education system. But since consciousness is a 'state of mind', the subjective assessments of a person also have to be taken into account. In that sense, political consciousness also involves some self-assessment and reflection. That is, how the person sees herself or himself as a political being, how they see the connections between what they do or think and what they do or see in society or even just in their work. While how a person is politically involved in practice (which can be an external measure) would indicate political consciousness, not everyone, indeed not most people, are in the practice of being politically involved.
A voter does not have to be politically involved to have political consciousness. Mental capacity building through education on social, economic, cultural, political and civil issues are also indicative of political consciousness. Plus, the skill of being impartial (not active in a political entity or party) but able to discern, understand, develop policies may even be a better, and non-biased, way to develop political consciousness.
It is useful to note that thinking around political consciousness (e.g. Gramsci and Freire) also correlate with theories of education. We can go so far as even saying there is more than correlation, rather a good education and a good education system are causes of developing political consciousness.
There are different dimensions of political consciousness, including, but not limited to:
Like 'societal development', the processes of gaining political consciousness are non-linear, interactive and complex. Changes in consciousness or understanding of issues (whether social, economic, cultural, political or civil matters) can occur at many different times, can accelerate or decelerate due to all kind of factors.
Political consciousness varies and encompasses all the stages of the process of becoming politically conscious, so it cannot be merely captured, and cannot be expressed in a simple straightforward description.
People are involved in all sorts of different processes that might impacts on their consciousness and understandings. So, there is some difficulty in showing the cause of a particular form of political consciousness or understanding.
The analysis of political consciousness though would certainly involve educational activities and how people become aware from educational activities. It is education that enables a person to develop an analysis of their situation in society.
For political consciousness to be elaborated upon using external measures requires assessment procedures under a good education system. But since consciousness is a 'state of mind', the subjective assessments of a person also have to be taken into account. In that sense, political consciousness also involves some self-assessment and reflection. That is, how the person sees herself or himself as a political being, how they see the connections between what they do or think and what they do or see in society or even just in their work. While how a person is politically involved in practice (which can be an external measure) would indicate political consciousness, not everyone, indeed not most people, are in the practice of being politically involved.
A voter does not have to be politically involved to have political consciousness. Mental capacity building through education on social, economic, cultural, political and civil issues are also indicative of political consciousness. Plus, the skill of being impartial (not active in a political entity or party) but able to discern, understand, develop policies may even be a better, and non-biased, way to develop political consciousness.
It is useful to note that thinking around political consciousness (e.g. Gramsci and Freire) also correlate with theories of education. We can go so far as even saying there is more than correlation, rather a good education and a good education system are causes of developing political consciousness.
There are different dimensions of political consciousness, including, but not limited to:
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Political consciousness in countering disparities in society, caused, for example, by exploitation of one group of persons over others, or in countering the hegemony of capitalism.
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Political consciousness as the way to advance workers’ interests (as in raising class consciousness).
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Political consciousness as being generally politically active.
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Political consciousness as in lobbying representative members of a legislature to change, make or repeal laws, or being involved in consultative processes regarding proposals for primary legislation and secondary legislation (rule making).
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Political consciousness as in policy analysis and the 'synthetic' work or formulating practical policies relevant to the times, or community or political unit, or to a place.
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Engagement in economic ventures of a cooperative nature or in any kind of enterprise (or not for profit production of goods or services) or being in a collective/cooperative ownership of the means of production relevant to one's livelihood.
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And so on.
At the end of the day, they all involve some form of education and some level of education, be it from basic to advanced. So, the best means of raising political consciousness in society is through a well- developed holistic education system. It is also the best way of ensuring an informing the whole body of persons entitled to vote under a general franchise.
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