Doctoral Dissertation Research: Explaining Voters Attachments to Charismatic Legacies

传统观点认为，魅力型领导人的魅力会在他们死后迅速消退。那么，为什么许多人会成为并继续依附于一些魅力领袖的遗产呢？PI进行了一项调查实验，直接测试了新领导人能够重新激活公民对政党的依恋的策略和条件，这些政党是作为魅力领袖为获得政治支持而建立的工具。这项研究的结果将为政治科学、社会学、心理学和商业管理等学科关于魅力型领导的本质和后果的辩论提供信息。此外，该项目将阐明对有魅力的遗产的不同类型的依恋如何加强或破坏民主代表权和选举竞争。最后，结果可以为具有强大魅力遗产的国家的政治沟通和竞选战略提供信息。本项目调查了公民对由魅力领袖创立的弱制度化政治运动的依恋的性质和演变。PI认为，新的领导人可以利用有魅力的创始人的遗产，通过以下三种机制之一来维持或重新激活支持：1)通过计划和政策将公民与运动联系起来的程序化机制；2)通过参与运动组织来维护公民依恋的草根机制；3)一种个人主义机制，表明公民的依恋仍然植根于创始人的魅力。PI通过一项调查实验来检验这三种机制，该实验检验了每种机制对公民对遗留政党的依恋的相对影响。参与者被随机分配阅读一篇包含四种实验条件之一的短新闻，其中三种条件将启动运动的纲领性、基层或个人方面，而第四个条件将不包含启动。随后，参与者将回答有关他们对该运动的认同、对其领导人的支持、情感依恋以及政治态度和行为的问题。PI使用均值差异和比例差异测试来检验哪种机制为追随者对运动的依恋提供了基础。Pi以阿根廷和委内瑞拉为例。

General SummaryConventional wisdom suggests that charismatic leaders' allure fades quickly after their deaths. Why, then, do many individuals become and remain attached to the legacies of some charismatic leaders? The PI conducts a survey experiment that directly tests the strategies and conditions under which new leaders can reactivate citizens' attachment to political parties that were established as vehicles for charismatic leaders in order to garner political support. The results of this study will inform debates about the nature and consequences of charismatic leadership across disciplines including political science, sociology, psychology, and business management. Furthermore, the project will clarify how different types of attachment to charismatic legacies might strengthen or undermine democratic representation and electoral competition. Finally, the results can serve to inform political communication and campaign strategy in countries with strong charismatic legacies.Technical SummaryThis project investigates the nature and evolution of citizens' attachments to weakly institutionalized political movements founded by charismatic leaders. The PI argues that new leaders can tap into the charismatic founders' legacies to sustain or reactivate support through one of three mechanisms: 1) a programmatic mechanism that link citizens' ties to the movement through programs and policies; 2)a grassroots mechanism that posits that citizens' attachments are preserved through participation in the movement' organizations; 3) a personalistic mechanism that indicates that citizens' attachments remain anchored in the founder's charisma. The PI test these three mechanisms through a survey experiment that examines the relative influence of each mechanism on citizens' attachment to the legacy parties. Individuals are randomly assigned to read a short news piece containing one of four experimental conditions, three of which will prime either the programmatic, grassroots, or personalistic aspects of the movement, and the fourth of which will contain no prime. Subsequently, participants will answer questions about their identification with the movement, support for its leaders, emotional attachment, and political attitudes and behaviors. The PI uses difference-of-means and difference-of-proportions tests to examine which mechanism provides the basis for followers' attachments to the movement. The Pi uses Argentina and Venezuela as the cases of interest.