Path: Janda: Political Parties, Home Page > Part 1: Table of Contents > Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Involvement (pp. 126-132), this is p. 132
(you can navigate to other pages by clicking on page numbers below)
p. 126
p. 127
p. 128
p. 129
p. 130
p. 131
----

terested not so much in the members' preferences among candidates, however strong, as in their devotion to leaders who exercise charismatic power over their followers. One test for the operation of personalism in party politics is the durability of the attachment. Is it the same individual who attracts allegiance from the party faithful over time, or do they appear to support the party's candidate regardless of personality?

Operational Definition. A party is scored according to the extent to which party militants seem motivated by "personalism" or the charismatic qualities of the party leader.

0

Few militants, if any, seem motivated by personalism.

1

About one-third of the militants seem motivated by personalism.

2

About half of the militants seem motivated by personalism.

3

About two-thirds of the militants seem motivated by personalism.

4

All or almost all of the militants seem motivated by personalism.

Coding Results. As we have scored it, "personalism" is absent in most of the 90 percent or so of the parties that we judged on BV1106. As shown in Tables 12.6a and 12.6b, roughly 65 percent show no evidence of the phenomenon as a motivational force for party militants, although personal qualities of leaders may attract many if not most of the supporters at lower levels. As a motivational basis for a clear majority of the militants, however, personalism seems to be operative in fewer than 10 percent of all the parties. Our coding judgments for BV1106 bear no significant relationship to the amount of information in the literature and our confidence in those judgments.

TABLE 12.6a: Mid 1950s: BV11.06 Personalism

TABLE 12.6b: Early 1960s: BV11.06 Personalism

return to Table of Contents