Who accepts electoral clientelism? The role of personality traits in Romania

Figures & data

Figure 1. The Acceptance of Electoral Clientelism among the Respondents (N=1,140).

Figure 2. The Effects on the Acceptance of Electoral Clientelism.

Table

	Question	Measurement
Acceptance of clientelism	On a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (completely), how acceptable do you consider that a candidate or party offer voters money/offer food/promise jobs in exchange of votes?	0–10 scale
Five Personality Dimensions Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness	Here are a number of personality traits that may or may not apply to you. On a scale from 0 (totally disagree) to 10 (totally agree), please indicate for each statement the extent to which you agree or disagree with that statement. You should rate the extent to which the pair of traits applies to you, even if one characteristic applies more strongly than the other	0–10 scale for each item, which were matched as described in the text
Political interest	How interested are you in Romanian politics?	Not at all (1) to very much (5)
Importance of elections	How important were the 2020 local elections for you?	Not at all (1) to very important (5)
Education	primary, secondary and vocational school, high school, university degree, and postgraduate studies	Four categories: the first three were merged
Income	What is the net income per capita in your household?	7-point scale: less than 1,000 RON (1) to over 10,000 RON (7)
Urban vs. rural	Where do you live?	Four categories: village, town or small city below 100,000 inhabitants, medium city between 100,000 and 300,000 inhabitants, and large city with more than 300,000 inhabitants

RON is the national currency. Exchange rate at the time of the survey: 1 RON = 0.20€ or $0.25.

Table

	Mean	Std. dev	Min.	Max.	N
Extraversion	11.39	4.90	0	20	1090
Agreeableness	12.57	3.79	0	20	1094
Conscientiousness	16.11	3.35	0	20	1093
Neuroticism	12.73	4.49	0	20	1094
Openness	15.28	3.76	0	20	1094
Political interest	3.43	1.13	1	5	1134
Importance of elections	3.92	0.99	1	5	1138
Education	2.62	0.80	1	4	1128
Income	3.12	1.53	1	7	1108
Urban vs. rural	2.65	1.24	1	4	1140

Table

	Vote buying	Product offer	Job promise
Extraversion	0.01 (0.01)	0.02 (0.01)	0.02* (0.01)
Agreeableness	−0.03*(0.01)	−0.02 (0.01)	−0.01 (0.02)
Conscientiousness	−0.05**(0.02)	−0.04** (0.02)	−0.06*** (0.02)
Neuroticism	0.01 (0.01)	−0.01 (0.01)	−0.01 (0.01)
Openness	0.01 (0.01)	−0.01 (0.01)	0.01 (0.01)
Political interest	−0.04 (0.05)	−0.02 (0.05)	−0.04 (0.06)
Importance of elections	−0.03 (0.04)	0.01 (0.07)	0.01 (0.06)
Education	−0.01 (0.06)	−0.06 (0.06)	−0.21*** (0.07)
Income	0.05 (0.04)	0.04 (0.04)	0.04 (0.05)
Urban vs. rural	−0.08** (0.03)	−0.04 (0.04)	−0.02 (0.05)
R^2	0.03	0.03	0.03
N	1,061	1,061	1,061

Reported coefficients are non-standardized, robust standard errors in parentheses.

***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.