Dublin Core
Title
The Effects of Personality and Character in Shaping Political Behavior of University Students in Albania
Abstract
Political perceptions and participation are central factors in understanding political behavior. These perceptions and the partaking in a country’s political events such as voting or acts of civil disobedience are considerably influenced by one’s personality and character. In this paper the author tries to approach voting, protests, and political affiliation and candidate preferences by putting an emphasis or accentuating the role of one’s personality in shaping convictions and beliefs on the above-mentioned facets of political life. The measuring tool through which data were accumulated regarding the matter at hand is a questionnaire filled by Albanian university students. Approximately 500 respondents answered closed ended questions and stated their level of agreeableness with a multifariousness of statements. The questionnaire data is evaluated using SPSS program. The questionnaire’s results showed that in Albania political affiliation is mostly determined by personal interest, demonstrations are usually propelled by the wrong causes, disenchantment with political figures is more than present and candidate preferences are affected more by his/her personality than by any other aspect, thus making it easier for charismatic leaders rather than competent ones to take office. As a result it can be said that Albania’s young generation views the pragmatic striving to achieve goals, comprising personal interests, through politics as plausible. In addition it suffers from disillusionment and alienation with the political life, caused by abusive politicians before unresponsive crowds. Keywords:Personality, Political behavior, Voting, Albania, University students,
Keywords
Article
PeerReviewed
PeerReviewed
Identifier
ISSN 2303-4564
Publisher
International Burch University
Date
2014-04-24
Extent
2466