Abstract
In the final chapter the author evaluates the results reported previously in relation to personality’s effect on the ability of individuals to understand and engage in politics in a manner consistent with the demands placed upon them as democratic citizens. In addition to summing up the empirical results, the author also discusses where our political system can go from here. Calls for more and better education will continue to have little effect on the average citizen’s overall political knowledge and interest because much of the cause of their apathy is outside of conscious thought. Personality is but one factor found in the hidden depths of the unconscious mind influencing political behavior. Thus, the author takes the baton from Achen and Bartels (Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016) and presents his ideas on how the electoral process should be altered in order to accommodate the way our individual minds really work.
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Notes
- 1.
To be fair, the founding generation saw quite plainly the limits of individual participation, which is why only the House of Representatives was directly elected. It has been the high minded civic reformers of subsequent generations, mentioned by Achen and Bartels, which have refined our political system in such a way that it is more and more dependent on the participation of the ideal democratic citizen.
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Dusso, A. (2017). Personality’s Role in Shaping Civic Aptitude. In: Personality and the Challenges of Democratic Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53603-3_6
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