Political Socialization in the Philippines: Learning about Democracy 241 started by looking into the target concept, democracy, and how it was perceived, understood and practiced by Filipinos. Data from various surveys and studies show the strength of our comparative preference for democracy over authoritarianism, despite not being clear about what democracy truly means. Furthermore, despite the overwhelming preference, practice of its tenets has been quite another matter. "The spirit is willing but the esh is weak." Young people have more important self-interests, it seems, and are less concerned with keeping informed about current events, actively participating in socio-civic movements or voting in elections. One can only hope that they outgrow their political apathy as they mature and learn to take their place as citizens. Filipino political socialization is, at best, haphazard, a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, some of them confused or downright incompetent. Institutions and their primary socialization agents are in the midst of change and there is, perhaps, a need to regroup and rethink our traditional values and ways of being. Parents appear confused in the midst of rapidly changing and, often, fractured family structures. And the young are challenging the old systems in more overt ways. Schools are caught in the same maelstrom of change. There is confusion and resistance to the many attempts to reformulate the educational agenda; too many attempts to retool and innovate that stall in the face of resistance. Education appears myopically focused on turning out products who will t best in the work force and will be employable, neglecting basic values and skills that could contribute to a more complete human being and better citizen of the land. Once powerful institutions like the church have lost inuence or have diminished power and smaller circles of inuence. What is the impact of this on the transmission of moral values that used to be their domain? Media, especially social media, appears to have taken over the slack in socialization space but, because it is largely unregulated, it can be utilized by unscrupulous agents for their own gains. Philippine media appears to be one of the freest in the world (i.e., little or no regulation or censorship) but it needs to support that freedom with greater responsibility and accountability to the consumers. At the moment, it is like a circus where the views of the rich and powerful play a more dominant role, a free-for-all where, under the guise of anonymity, people feel at liberty to bash other people or give vent to their baser, more aggressive instincts without fear of reprisal. This is hardly a positive environment for the transmission of positive political values and beliefs or the learning of skills and characteristics that would make one a good citizen. Peer groups behave just as unrestrainedly in this new social media context. There is too much unnecessary information sharing, too little reection, not enough critical evaluation. It is too easy to be unrestrained and to allow one's negative tendencies free rein. There is little (self) censorship, too much self indulgence and heightened pressures for impression management and