Poželjna obilježja političara. Što žele hrvatski glasači?
Desirable Characteristics of Politicians. What do Croatian Voters Want?

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with research of the importance of certain characteristics that Croatian voters are requiring of politicians filling the highest positions in the Republic of Croatia. The results presented are based on data collected through research of public opinion carried out by the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, which included a representative sample of the Croatian adult population (N=1248) on the eve of the 2003 Parliamentary Elections (Lamza Posavec et al., 2003). The citizens ranked honesty first, then the level of education and patriotism, while characteristics such as compliance, attractive physical appearance and gender affiliation are ranked as the least important ones. According to the research, three broader dimensions could be discerned from the basic characteristics, those reflecting the public appearance of politicians, their representation of traditional and political values and their qualities as private persons. All the comparisons and testings indicated that different social and political groups require equally of the politician to have explicit personal qualities, while they differ amongst themselves in the importance they give to public appearance and the degree of representation of traditional and political values in political life.

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