Through analysis of data produced by the World Values Surveys project, this paper attempts to identify the impact that the period in which democratic institutions have come to prevail has had on the younger sectors of the population, precisely those who have had their political socialization during this period. Beginning from the premise that the incorporation of political values is rooted primarily in the first two decades of an individual´s life, we seek to verify the validity of the hypothesis that democratic institutions tend to favor the establishment of values that are consistent with and amenable to their consolidation and deepening. For these purposes, we have tested the association between the variable "age" and some measures of values and political attitudes that have been emphasized by different approaches to what has been called "the theory of political culture". The results obtained run counter to the aforementioned thesis, or do so at least in the Brazilian case, insofar as values that are significantly different according to age group have not been identified for those who underwent their political socialization under historically different institutional arrangements.
democratic institutions; political values; political socialization; age groups
