The good politician: competence, integrity and authenticity in seven democracies
The good politician: competence, integrity and authenticity in seven democracies
We explore the characteristics of politicians that make them trusted by citizens, fielding conjoint survey experiments in seven democracies. Studies regularly indicate that competence and integrity are key attributes in the perceived trustworthiness of politicians, but we show that displaying authenticity is also important. Authenticity is about being true to oneself, and in the political context this requires politicians to appear unlike typical politicians and more like ordinary people. We find that some attributes associated with authenticity are as important as competence and integrity, and they appear to be especially important to citizens with lower levels of generalized political trust. These findings suggest that considerations of politicians being ‘in touch with ordinary people’ can matter just as much as more traditional judgements of their honesty and ability to produce outcomes. This has implications for our understanding of political leadership as well as for trust-building strategies.
authenticity, competence, integrity, leadership, political trust
Valgarðsson, Viktor
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Jennings, Will
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Stoker, Gerry
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McKay, Lawrence
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Devine, Daniel
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Clarke, Nick
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Valgarðsson, Viktor
8f30ca41-f763-4cd2-9b08-1b4ff7ab27d9
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Stoker, Gerry
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
McKay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
Devine, Daniel
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Clarke, Nick
4ed65752-5210-4f9e-aeff-9188520510e8
Valgarðsson, Viktor, Jennings, Will, Stoker, Gerry, McKay, Lawrence, Devine, Daniel and Clarke, Nick
(2024)
The good politician: competence, integrity and authenticity in seven democracies.
Political Studies.
(doi:10.1177/00323217241261180).
Abstract
We explore the characteristics of politicians that make them trusted by citizens, fielding conjoint survey experiments in seven democracies. Studies regularly indicate that competence and integrity are key attributes in the perceived trustworthiness of politicians, but we show that displaying authenticity is also important. Authenticity is about being true to oneself, and in the political context this requires politicians to appear unlike typical politicians and more like ordinary people. We find that some attributes associated with authenticity are as important as competence and integrity, and they appear to be especially important to citizens with lower levels of generalized political trust. These findings suggest that considerations of politicians being ‘in touch with ordinary people’ can matter just as much as more traditional judgements of their honesty and ability to produce outcomes. This has implications for our understanding of political leadership as well as for trust-building strategies.
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valgardsson-et-al-2024-the-good-politician-competence-integrity-and-authenticity-in-seven-democracies
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e-pub ahead of print date: 8 August 2024
Keywords:
authenticity, competence, integrity, leadership, political trust
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Local EPrints ID: 495188
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/495188
ISSN: 0032-3217
PURE UUID: e7fc33a1-834c-428e-9fcd-e1bf9344a693
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Date deposited: 31 Oct 2024 17:37
Last modified: 01 Nov 2024 02:59
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Author:
Daniel Devine
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