Kinder and gentler ministers in consensus democracies? Personality and the selection of government members
| Published date | 01 February 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02633957221116507 |
| Author | Martina Flick Witzig,Adrian Vatter |
| Date | 01 February 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957221116507
Politics
2024, Vol. 44(1) 39 –57
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/02633957221116507
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Kinder and gentler ministers
in consensus democracies?
Personality and the selection
of government members
Martina Flick Witzig and Adrian Vatter
University of Bern, Switzerland
Abstract
This study examines the personality traits of candidates for the Swiss government and how they are
related to the candidates’ electoral chances. Switzerland as a paradigmatic consensual democracy
is an ideal test case to examine the connection between the specific pattern of a democracy and
the government personalities that fit it. We argue that the cultural and institutional setting of the
Swiss Government increases the electoral chances of kinder and gentler personalities. To test
this, we estimate regression models on a new data set of candidates covering all vacancies in the
Swiss government between 1982 and 2020. Our results reveal that candidates with a higher level
of agreeableness do enjoy an advantage in the electoral process for Swiss consensus government.
Keywords
institutions, nomination, personality, success, Swiss government
Received: 10th March 2022; Revised version received: 16th June 2022; Accepted: 20th June 2022
Introduction
The selection of members of the government is one of the most important political events
with far-reaching consequences. The ministers not only make important political deci-
sions for the society and economy of a country but are also important role models for the
population, ensuring the legitimacy of public policy. The selected members of govern-
ment thus constitute an important link between the preferences of voters on one hand and
the administration that implements public policy on the other hand (Laver and Shepsle,
1994). ‘Hence, ministerial selection in coalition governments is an important
phenomenon to study when we aim to understand democratic politics and governance’
(Bäck et al., 2016).
Corresponding author:
Martina Flick Witzig, Institute of Political Science, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012 Bern,
Switzerland.
Email: martina.flick@unibe.ch
1116507POL0010.1177/02633957221116507PoliticsFlick Witzig and Vatter
research-article2022
Article
40 Politics 44(1)
Existing research suggests that the probability of selection to government is related to
a candidate’s seniority and network in parliament, social background factors such as edu-
cation, gender, age, as well as institutional rules (e.g. Blondel and Thiébault, 1991;
Dowding and Dumont, 2009; Laver and Shepsle, 1994). In this study, we consider one
previously unexplored determinant in ministerial selection: the personality of the candi-
dates. During the last decades, numerous studies have appeared dealing with the effects
of personality on political ideology, political interest and knowledge, party affiliation,
aspects of political participation, and so on (e.g. Ackermann et al., 2019; Best, 2011;
Fatke, 2019; Freitag and Zumbrunn, 2022; Gerber et al., 2011; Mondak, 2011). In addi-
tion, various contributions study the personality traits of elites in general (Caprara and
Silvester, 2018), of legislators (Hanania, 2017; Klingler et al., 2019; Nørgaard and
Klemmensen, 2019), elected officials (Joly et al., 2019), US Presidents (Barber, 1972;
Rubenzer et al., 2000; Rubenzer and Faschingbauer, 2005; Simonton, 1986, 2006) or of
municipal candidates (Freitag et al., 2019; Scott and Medeiros, 2020). The fact that the
media describes the candidates as friendly, hardworking, conscientious, ambitious, and so
on in the run-up of the elections (Freitag, 2017: 27) highlights the relevance of personality.
However, the field remains sparsely researched in general (Schafer and Smith, 2020) and
hardly any previous research has taken into account the role of different personality traits
for government office. This is the research gap we address. We aim to answer the follow-
ing question: What is the role of personality when it comes to the selection of government
members and how do successful candidates for a national executive office differ in terms
of their personality traits from the non-successful politicians?
We investigate these questions for the case of Switzerland where the national parlia-
ment, the so-called Federal Assembly, forms the electoral body for the government
(Church, 2004; Linder and Mueller, 2021; Vatter, 2020a). It exercises its right to form the
government at both the beginning of a new legislative period and when a member of the
government, the so-called Federal Council, leaves office due to resignation or death.
However, we limit our analysis on the elections of new government members, as the re-
election of incumbents at the beginning of new legislative periods is the rule.
In an international comparison, the electoral competences of the Swiss parliament are
extensive (Sieberer, 2010: 75ff.). First and unlike in countries as Belgium, Ireland, or
Italy, the number of candidates is not restricted, at least not in the first ballot. In principle,
all Swiss citizens with political rights at the federal level are eligible, though members of
government must not hold a parliamentary mandate at the same time. Second, the legisla-
tive does not only elect the Prime Minister (which is in fact a non-existing position in
Switzerland), but all seven (equal) members of government, the Federal Councillors. The
election takes place individually and consecutively for each seat in government. Four of
five candidates for each vacancy are quite common, while even higher numbers occur
(Altermatt, 2019). Prior to the election, the parliamentary groups (parties or a group of
parties) decide whom to nominate as their candidates. This nomination process concerns
mainly the parliamentary group of the resigning member of government as the new mem-
ber usually belongs to the same party as the predecessor. However, during the last two
decades, other parliamentary groups have increasingly started to nominate candidates as
well. Nominated candidates enjoy a more promising starting position as they usually gain
most of the votes of their own parliamentary group. In addition, they receive more media
attention (Vatter, 2020b: 83). However, every now and then, parliament prefers to elect
non-nominated persons. Since 1960, this was the case in about 20% of all elections,
which affected the Social Democratic Party in particular (Rhinow et al., 2016: 477). Thus,
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