An Ideal President’s Personality: Understanding the Expectations of Russian Citizens

ABSTRACT

Little is currently known about how voters arrive at their vision of an ideal president. Along with an ideal president’s traits, this study examines the domains Russian voters draw upon when formulating these expectations. 20 in-depth interviews allowed an initial list of qualities that fall into broad categories of leadership effectiveness, morality, qualifications, and sociability. The domains from which voters derive their expectations include comparative, contextual, functional sources, and leadership style domain. Furthermore, 450 interviews examined the commonness of personality expectations in a quantitative sample. The respondents were more likely to discuss specific leadership traits than social skills or qualifications.

Acknowledgments

We thank Marat Akhmerov and Nikolay Rogach (Lomonosov Moscow State University) for their support in data collection. Our special thanks are extended to our colleagues Philippe De Vries of the University of Antwerp and Natalia Smulkina of the Lomonosov Moscow State University for their helpful comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Kemerovo, Briansk, Ivanovo, and Bashkortostan.

2. This study was reviewed by the Ethics Committee for the Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Antwerp, with positive advice on November 20, 2019.

3. Mean age.

4. 18–25, 26–30, 31–40, 41–50, 51–60, 61–70, 70 years of age and older.

5. Items from the structured interview guide administered to 450 respondents:

1. “I believe an ideal president should be…”

2. “What qualities do you think an ideal president should have? Why?”

3. “What qualities are completely unacceptable for an ideal president? Why?”

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and the Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian Federation.