The Big Five Personality Traits and Electoral Clientelism: Evidence from Romania

Many studies illustrate how personality matters for political attitudes, communication and behaviors. Clientelism is an important component of contemporary elections especially in new democracies and transition countries. In this context, we know very little about how personality relates to clientelism. This paper makes a first step to address this gap in the literature and analyzes the ways in which the Big Five personality traits influence the perception of clientelism in a new democracy. We focus on Romania due to its high level of clientelism over the last decades. The analysis uses individual level data from a survey conducted on a national representative sample in the aftermath of the 2020 local elections. We distinguish between positive and coercive clientelism. The findings indicate higher levels of openness and neuroticism favor the acceptance of positive clientelism but the processes are mediated by variables such as political knowledge or trust. We contribute greatly to the literature on political representation by illustrating the psychological roots of contemporary behaviors.