The personality of stealth democrats

How Traits Shape Attitudes Towards Expert-Based Governments

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6407778
AutoresMaya Ackermann (Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science, Bern, Switzerland, autor de correspondencia), Kathrin Ackermann (0000-0002-8697-0184, Faculty of Social Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany), Michel Freitag (0000-0003-2428-0652, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science, Bern, Switzerland), Markus Freitag
Año2019
Volumen42
Número3
Páginas573-592
Fecha de publicación2019-04-16
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWest European Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01402382.2018.1530494
OpenAlexW2900059278
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas41

While some scholars call for mechanisms to give citizens a greater voice in politics, others critically question the demand for more citizen participation. Rather, they find that the people do not want to be involved in politics and prefer independent experts to make political decisions. This perspective is captured by Hibbing and Theiss-Morse in their concept of stealth democracy. They describe stealth democrats as people who think that political debates are unnecessary or who naturally avoid all sorts of conflict. Especially the latter argument points to a potential psychological underpinning of stealth attitudes, which forms the starting point of the investigation here. This article evaluates the personality of stealth democrats and makes use of a well-known concept to capture personality traits, the ‘Big Five’ model. Analysing unique survey data from Switzerland, the results reveal significant relationships between personality traits such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism and stealth attitudes

Agreeableness · Argument (complex analysis · Big Five personality traits · Conscientiousness · Democracy · Extraversion and introversion · Neuroticism · Openness to experience · Personality · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology