Political Socialization in the Philippines: Learning about Democracy 231 counted" (Gastardo-Conaco & Samonte, 1993). Only nine percent of the sample said they would not vote for various negative reasons - "too busy, too tired to bother, disappointed with the situation, does not believe in the system, it does not solve anything." Unfortunately, the more recent study (Gastardo-Conaco & Quiñones, 2015) appears to reect a growing apathy among the young. As mentioned above, majority of the young people surveyed were not interested in voting, disinterested in seeking information about current events, and disinterested in active participation in socio-civic movements. Political Socialization How then does the individual acquire their views on democracy and other political ways in their cultural milieu? The answer would be socialization, political socialization. "Socialization is a life-long process of learning whereby the individual acquires the accepted beliefs, values sentiments, norms and behavior of his group and society" (Medina, 1991, p. 47). Ortega (1984, citing Sigel, 1970) described political socialization as the internalization process of the values, beliefs and practices of a political society. Sicat (1976) framed it as the learning of politically relevant social patterns. It is the transmission of the political culture to new generations (Owen, 2008). As with any other societal beliefs, political values and behaviors have to be learned. Purveyors of this learning are known as socializing agents. The learning may be deliberate and directly transmitted by the socializing agent or be non-deliberate, as in observational or experiential learning by the person involved. Sicat (1976) also made a distinction between manifest and latent political socialization. Manifest political socialization is when the state indoctrinates its citizens directly via the educational system or through media. Latent political socialization occurs when the individual implicitly learns political processes and constructs via observation, experience or any other less direct route. Learning can be at the micro (individual focused) or macro level (Owen, 2008). At the macro level, the bigger contexts of history, culture, and socio-political realities come into play to inuence the individual's political cognitions and behaviors. There are many venues and agents of socialization, therefore. The family is typically the rst venue for a child's socialization with parents and other family members as socializing agents. When the child reaches school age, the school becomes the second venue of socialization with teachers as the main socializing agents. The peer group also comes into play at this stage in socialization (Youngblood, 1972 as cited in Montiel & Macapagal, 2000). As the child grows older and his/her social circle increases, there are more opportunities for learning from other socializing agents that include the church, other membership groups and media. More recent research (Quiñones, 2013) supports these earlier ndings, identifying schools, family, the internet and television as the youth's top