Psychological Dimensions of the Political Behavior. Cognition, Emotions and Vote in Romanian Presidential Elections

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present several psychological aspects of the Romanian Presidential elections. In this context, this article creates the nexus between the normative perspectives and the empirical reality from the Romanian electoral system. Thus, at the theoretical level the article stresses the importance of the classical theories of the political behavior for understanding the current electoral realities. Although we have identified several constraints of the theoretical models, in practice we could emphasize the idea of a mix model based on both psychological and economic dimensions. In the case of the Romanian Presidential elections we have to notice that political status, protest vote and ideological vote create premises for voter turnout (R2= 0.645, p > 0.01). Moreover we have observed significant differences between first and second round of elections. These empirical findings cover, partially, the behavioral model based on the “hot cognition”.