Dark Politics The Personality of Politicians and the Future of Democracy

Political leaders across the globe are seemingly getting “darker”—uncivil, controversial, showcasing an aggressive personality and “bad manners” and taking pleasure in breaking political norms. Who are these politicians, and who likes them? Is a dark personality in politicians an electoral asset, or does it create a backlash? And what are the systemic consequences of dark politics—in terms of, for example, the rise of affective polarization and disaffection for democracy? This book investigates the “darker” sides of human personality in politicians and political leaders. It presents novel evidence from an original large-scale survey covering more than 100 elections worldwide, a collection of postelection mass surveys from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, and a novel experiment with American respondents that simulated the personality of a fictive candidate. The analyses reveal that “dark” politicians are more likely among populists and tend to use a harsher rhetoric consisting of political attacks, incivility, and fearmongering. If they tend to be disliked by the public at large, they are nonetheless particularly appreciated by voters who themselves score high on dark traits and those high on populist attitudes. Dark candidates are more likely to be electorally successful when running as incumbent and tend to be associated with a better economic performance in their country if elected. However, dark leaders can lead to increased cynicism and affective polarization in voters, are associated with a worse record when it comes to their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and seem associated with democratic deconsolidation, for example, shrinking political rights.