Personalization of politics

Abstract

Over the last decades, the “personalization of politics” has turned into one of the defining elements of the democratic process. The common wisdom that sees popular political leaders as a fundamental electoral asset for their own parties has found increasing support in the existing comparative literature. Equally crucial aspects, such as the relationship between personalization and the old media, have been repeatedly addressed by communication research. A growing body of evidence from the fields of personality psychology and leadership studies has further refined our understanding of the role of individuals—politicians and voters alike—in driving this trend across time. Finally, institutional research dealing with parties, electoral systems, and cabinets has specified the structural transformations that fostered the personalization of politics in Western democracies and beyond. This article summarizes the growing body of available knowledge on the topic focusing, in turn, on General Overviews on personalization and politics; Electoral Research: Leader Effects on Voter Behavior and voting behavior; Personality Psychology and leadership studies; Party Politics; Political Communication; and Institutions: Primaries, Electoral Systems, and Executives and electoral systems.