Predictors of party evaluation in post-conflict society: The case of Serbia

Abstract

The goal of present study is to increase understanding of evaluation of political parties by exploring their relations with dispositional constructs conceptually related to political behavior. These are: personality traits, social attitudes and the Ethos of conflict, which emerges from protracted violent conflict between societies. The conflict examined in this study involves Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Principal components analysis conducted on parties? preferences isolated two dimensions which can be broadly interpreted as Socio-liberal and National-conservative orientation. Regression analyses have shown that these two dimensions are explained mostly by the Ethos of conflict, followed by social attitudes and personality traits. Personality traits of Honesty and Originality predict evaluation towards Socio-liberal parties. High patriotism and a positive evaluation of one?s own nation characterize supporters of National-conservative parties, while Socio-liberal participants have low patriotic attitudes and do not consider that the aims of Serbian politics in Kosovo automatically exclude the Kosovo Albanian aims.