Personality and Democratic Politics

How does a personality characteristic such as self—esteem become translated into political convictions? How do individual differences in self—esteem affect who becomes a politcal activist and a political leader? These are among the major questions addressed in this study, the first of its kind to be based on large—scale samples of both political laders and ordinary citizens. Drawing on the voluminous research of social psychologists on self—esteem and integrating the dynamic theories of Fre...