Socializing policy feedback

Public policies shape political behaviors and attitudes through the process of policy feedback by affecting how people see their relationship with the government and their access to political resources. However, existing research largely assumes policy experiences shape political outcomes in the short term, overlooking the potential for these experiences to have long-term political effects. I reevaluate this assumption by examining how experiences with means-tested welfare programs during adolescence shape the development of political behaviors and attitudes. Because core political attitudes and behaviors take shape in adolescence and persist into adulthood, I argue that participating in welfare during adolescence has lasting effects on individuals’ perceptions of government, voting behavior, and core political orientations such as ideology and affective polarization. I also argue that how adolescent program participation shapes political development depends on race and ethnicity as well as the state policy context because these factors influence how individuals experience public policies.