Personality, transformational leadership, trust, and the 2000 U.S. presidential election

This study of the 2000 U.S. presidential election replicates and extends Pillai and Williams‘ [Leadersh. Q. 9 (1998) 397] study of the 1996 presidential election. Data were collected at two periods from respondents across three regions of the United States to yield 342 matched sets of preelection variables and postelection measures. Transformational leadership and attributed charisma were strongly associated with reported voting behavior for candidates Bush and Gore beyond party affiliation. Important extensions to earlier findings are that perceptions of candidate proactive behavior, empathy, and need for achievement were shown to be related to transformational leadership and attributed charisma, with trust in the leader an important mediating variable between leadership perceptions and voting behavior. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed

Charismatic and Affective Rhetoric in a Presidential Campaign

Although prior research demonstrates that charisma and rhetoric are two determinants of voting behavior, few studies have examined the effects of charismatic rhetoric and affect as they pertain to the outcomes of presidential elections. Using DICTION software for content analysis, 432 pre-convention speeches from the 2008 presidential election were analyzed to explore the effects that charismatic rhetoric and affect have on presidential candidates’ success. Results indicate that there were more similarities than differences in the charismatic and affect-laden rhetoric of successful and unsuccessful presidential candidates in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Overall, the results demonstrate that both successful and unsuccessful presidential candidates used charismatic rhetoric and emotional language to motivate their followers in the 2008 presidential election

The Minimal Persuasive Effects of Campaign Contact in General Elections: Evidence from 49 Field Experiments

Significant theories of democratic accountability hinge on how political campaigns affect Americans' candidate choices. We argue that the best estimate of the effects of campaign contact and advertising on Americans' candidates choices in general elections is zero. First, a systematic meta-analysis of 40 field experiments estimates an average effect of zero in general elections. Second, we present nine original field experiments that increase the statistical evidence in the literature about the persuasive effects of personal contact tenfold. These experiments' average effect is also zero. In both existing and our original experiments, persuasive effects only appear to emerge in two rare circumstances. First, when candidates take unusually unpopular positions and campaigns invest unusually heavily in identifying persuadable voters. Second, when campaigns contact voters long before election day and measure effects immediately-although this early persuasion decays. These findings contribute to ongoing debates about how political elites influence citizens' judgments

Intergenerational spaces: Citizens, political marketing and conceptualising trust in a transitional democracy

© 2015, Westburn Publishers Ltd. As the third largest democracy in the world, Indonesia’s relatively peaceful transition from authoritarian rule to democracy deserves academic attention. This study explored the notion of trust and how it could influence electoral behaviour. An intergenerational perspective was used to compare the differences between parents who were familiar with the previous political system and their children who have only been exposed to a new democratic system. Through the extension of the Dermody and Hanmer-Lloyd model of electoral behaviour, this study identifies the antecedents of trust/distrust in a transitional democracy and shows how these are different when citizens’ consider the political system and the political candidate. The work can benefit policy makers and political candidates who can develop political marketing strategies to engage citizens in the electoral process

El impacto del fenómeno de polarización de Indonesia en el comportamiento electoral de Java en las elecciones de 2024

This research analyses the factors that affect people’s preferences in their political decisions. In Indonesia, the people of Java Island account for 56.10% of the total population and lead to changing the contemporary political structure. Researchers held focus group discussions at several cities across Java Island to identify citizen knowledge of socio-political conditions and trace out characteristics of future leaders. One of the significant findings of this paper is that the ability to understand public interest in political issues is an essential factor for Javanese people to consider when selecting leaders in the future. Keywords: Political behavior; political participation; public opinion.Esta investigación analiza los factores que inciden en las preferencias de las personas en sus decisiones políticas. En Indonesia, la gente de la isla de Java representa el 56,10% de la población total y está liderando el cambio de la estructura política contemporánea. Los investigadores realizaron discusiones de grupos focales en varias ciudades de la isla de Java para identificar el conocimiento de los ciudadanos sobre las condiciones sociopolíticas y rastrear las características de los futuros líderes. Uno de los principales hallazgos de este documento es que la capacidad de comprender el interés público en cuestiones políticas, siendo un factor importante que los javaneses deben tener en cuenta al seleccionar líderes en el futuro. Palabras clave: Comportamiento político; participación política; opinión pública

The effects of crisis, cynicism about change, and value congruence on perceptions of leadership in the 2008 Presidential election: The role of authentic leadership and attributed charisma in the national vote.

The current study examines leadership in the context of the 2008 presidential election. Longitudinal data were collected across three regions of the United States to yield 414 responses. Perceptions of crisis were positively related to attributed charisma but not perceptions of authentic leadership. Value congruence moderated the relationship between cynicism and attributed charisma for Obama (but not for McCain) and between cynicism and perceptions of authentic leadership for McCain (but not for Obama). Attributed charisma was found to have augmenting effects over authenticity in predicting voting behavior. The contributions made to the charismatic, authentic, and crisis leadership literatures are discussed and directions for future research presented

An image is worth a thousand policies: the discursive strategy of electoral campaigns of winning candidates in Latin America

This paper examines the most important features of three recent presidential campaigns in Latin America, aiming at knowing the dominant trend in their major pieces of advertising. A comparison is made among the spots of candidates who won the presidential elections held in 2011 in Argentina (Cristina Fernández de Kirchner), 2012 in Mexico (Enrique Peña Nieto) and 2012 in Venezuela (Hugo Chávez), based on the functional theory of political campaign discourse(Benoit, 2003). Through a content analysis of 30 spots -and within them, 139 recording units- the article explores: 1) the type of discursive strategy prevalent in the spots of these winning campaigns, 2) whether topics related to policy aspects prevail or not over those referring to the candidates’ image, and 3) if, in temporal terms, these messages indicate issues from the past or future goals. Two relevant considerations arise from the study. On the one hand, the topic “policy” coexists with the topic “character”; on the other hand, “acclaiming” is more intensely associated with “events of the recent past”, while “attacking” is completely linked to “past events” which belong to previous administrations of those presidents who run for another term in office.Fil: Aruguete, Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Universidad Austral; ArgentinaFil: Riorda, Mario. The George Washington University; Estados Unidos. Universidad Austral; Argentin

Change: An Analysis of Vote Choice in the 2008 Presidential Election

This thesis investigates the factors that helped Americans come to a vote choice in the 2008 presidential election. After an in-depth analysis and presentation on the existing literature, I then present key moments in both McCain and Obama’s campaigns looking at the context, campaigns, and candidates. I then break down the turnout and vote choice of each major social group and demographic in the United States, juxtaposing it with the group’s historical voting trends and turnout. In 2008 there was a large nationwide Democratic shift. Chapter four seeks to defend whether it was the context of the election or the campaigns of the candidates that mattered most in the vote decision process. After arriving presenting the evidence, I concluded that it was impossible to isolate the effects of the contexts and the campaigns. Nevertheless, this paper investigates all that matters during a presidential election

Conceptualizing trust in electoral behaviour in a transitional democracy

This study explored how Indonesian voters’ perceptions about trust have changed over time and what factors affect their trust in the context of transitional democracy. This study identifies the antecedents of trust in the context of electoral behaviour in democratic transition in Indonesia and extends Dermody and Hanmer-Lloyd’s model of electoral behaviour (Dermody and Hanmer-Lloyd, 2005a; b), which seeks to explain the relationship between trust and electoral behaviour. An intergenerational perspective was used in this study to compare and contrast the differences between parents who are familiar with the previous political system and children who have only been exposed to a new democratic system. This study provides an empirical model of trust in electoral behaviour based on the grounded theory approach involving 32 voters who are parent-child pairs. This model operationalizes the antecedents of trust, distrust, and the relationship between trust and electoral behaviour. This study identified that trust falls into two categories, namely trust in political system and trust in political candidate. The results of this study indicate in Indonesia parents have adapted to the new political system well; however young people, in line with extant literature, remain cynical about the political system and political candidates. This study contributes to operationalize trust in electoral behaviour and argued that trust is crucial for engagement in electoral behaviour in a transitional democracy. For policy maker, reducing distrust in political system is very important to develop a healthy democracy whilst for politicians they need to have a good characteristic and capabilities to ensure that the political candidates are elected