The primary topic of our chapter is the need for possible theoretical foundations of, and empirical approaches to, a developmental science of politics. We demonstrate the utility of studying political socialisation surrounding presidential elections by describing the results of a large study of US elementary-school-age children’s views of the 2016 US presidential election. We review some potential sources of influence on children's political knowledge and attitudes, highlighting the role of gender, and we speculate about the beliefs that children may have internalised from watching the 2016 election. Finally, we argue that US institutions and parents should strive to improve children's political socialisation by, for example, providing youth with environments that are rich in information related to the purpose and value of politics, and ripe with opportunities and encouragement for political thought and action.

This chapter discusses the role of diplomats at the Congress of Vienna, with a specific focus on the British Foreign Secretary, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh. While accepting that Castlereagh, like all other diplomats, was motivated by a realist maximization of Britain’s interests, for which the talk of peace and cooperation tosome extent constituted mere rhetoric, the chapter emphasises how diplomats like Castlereagh were formed by the experiences and viewpoints they had accumulated over a long period of time. It was this political socialisation, notably shaped by the lengthy struggle against French Jacobinism and Bonapartism, that influenced Castlereagh’s beliefs about the most dangerous threats to the security of the Continent, and by implication, of Great Britain. These mixed beliefs informed his decision-making in ways that promoted both British interests and collective security and peace in the years after 1813.