POLITICAL CONCEPT

Political Concept

Acknowledgement

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

Declaration

I, [….], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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Abstract

This paper applies holistic personality theory to the concept of democratic political personality, emphasizing the importance of style of reasoning and of the functional bases of attitudes on democratic beliefs. Three subtypes-the socially adaptive, the cognitive, and the character-rooted democratic personality-are developed and analyzed to show the utility of the general concept for empirical research. Examples of each subtype are presented to emphasize the differences in styles of reasoning and in the bases of political attitudes among the types. This article emphasizes the crucial role demo-cratic political personality can play in both normative and empirical analyses; it is a useful bridging and empirical concept for studies of per-sonalities and polities.

Table Of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT2

DECLARATION3

ABSTRACT4

TABLE OF CONTENTS5

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the study1

Purpose of the study2

Concept Of The Research3

Rationale5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW6

Functional Bases Of Political Altitudes7

Style Of Political Reasoning9

The Socially Adaptive Democratic Personality11

The Cognitive Democratic Personality14

The Character-Rooted Democratic Personality16

The Effects of Personality20

Causes Of Political Attitudes And Beliefs22

Perceptions of Candidates' Attitudes Toward Government Policies23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY25

Research Design25

Mixed Method Research25

Research Method28

Primary or secondary / Qualitative or Quantitative28

Definition of (Qualitative/Quantitative) Research28

Quantitative Research28

Sample29

Instrument (interview/ Questionnaire)30

Informal, Conversational Interview31

General Interview Guide Approach31

Standardized, open-ended interview31

Closed, fixed-response interview32

Data Collection Method32

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION33

Personal Importance of Policy Issues33

The Projection Hypothesis35

Causes of Other Political Judgments38

National Issue Priorities38

News Media Agenda-Setting39

Evidence39

The Real-World Cues Hypothesis41

The Issue-Attention Cycle42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION44

REFERENCES47

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

The idea of a democratic political personality has played a con-tinuing role, implicitly or explicitly, in much of the work in political science and political pyschology in the past 30 years. In normative works or in the prescriptive portions of empirical works, the concept has usually been treated as an ideal type or as a civic exemplar (e.g., Berelson et al., 1954, pp. 306-313). A democratic personality is an integral assumption for both classical and participatory democratic theory (Pranger, 1968; Pateman, 1970). A similar construct underlies much of the work on rational models of voting and issue-oriented or policy voting (Carmines and Stimson, 1980). In many works, the paragon of the good citizen has been assumed to be the democratic political personality (Knutson, 1972; Simpson, 1971). Major theoretical analyses of democratic political personality have been made by Lasswell (1951), Barbu (1956), Lane (1962), Greenstein (1965, 1968), Knutson (1972), and Sniderman (1975). A number of smaller studies have examined specific attributes associated with democratic personality; many of them will be mentioned later in this article.

A carefully articulated concept of democratic personality has its roots in the creation and description of its antithesis, the authoritarian personality. Un-fortunately, the concept of democratic personality has not received the theoret-ical and empirical attention given to the authoritarian ...