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Please notice that the schedule of this course has been changed, because the teacher of this course, Prof. Gideon Rahat, was not able to join Europe (his flight from Israel was canceled).
The course will be held in the last week of the semester, as mentioned in the SIS. If Prof. Rahat cannot join us even then, the course will be held online. We apologize for any possible inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. The course examines the personalization of politics—a process in which the status of individual political actors is strengthened at the expense of institutions, associations, and groups (especially parties)—and the result of this process, personal politics (also known as personalism). We will start with the definition of the phenomena, the levels at which they occur (centralized versus decentralized personalization and personalism), and their various types (positive or negative, privatization versus individualization). We will then examine the arenas where it occurs: institutional, media, and behavioral. Finally, we will explore the causes of political personalization and personalism and its consequences. Teacher: Prof. G. Rahat Last update: Perottino Michel, doc., Ph.D. (02.04.2026)
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The grade will be based on: 1. Presentation of a topic (10 minutes) -- 35%.This would be a 10-minute presentation of a systematic comparison between levels of personalism in two political parties based on the article:
Rahat, Gideon. 2024. “Party Types in the Age of Personalized Politics.” Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 213-228. 2. Oral exam (20 minutes) -- 65%. Last update: Perottino Michel, doc., Ph.D. (02.02.2026)
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See the sylabus. Last update: Perottino Michel, doc., Ph.D. (02.02.2026)
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1. Political personalization and political personalism: definition, levels, arenas, and types Pedersen, Helene H., and Gideon Rahat. 2021. "Personalization and Personalized Politics: The Behavioural Dimension" Party Politics, 27(2): 211-219.
Further reading Rahat, Gideon, and Ofer Kenig. 2018. From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 115-125. Balmas, Meital, Gideon Rahat, Tamir Sheafer, and Shaul Shenhav. 2014. “Two Routes to Personalized Politics: Centralized and Decentralized Personalization,” Party Politics, 20)1(:37-51. Pruysers, Scott, William P. Cross, and Richard Katz. 2018. “Personalism, Personalization, and Party Politics,” in William P. Cross, Richard Katz and Scott Pruysers (eds), The Personalization of Democratic Politics and the Challenge for Political Parties. London: ECPR Press, pp. 1–18. Pruysers, Scott, and William P. Cross. 2016. “Research Note: ‘Negative’ Personalization: Party Leaders and Party Strategy,” Canadian Journal of Political Science, 49(3):539-558.
2. Institutional personalization and personalism Rahat, Gideon, and Ofer Kenig. 2018. From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 137-154. Friedberg, Chen, and Gideon Rahat. 2024. "Introduction: Collegial versus Personal Democratic Institutional Order," in Chen Friedberg and Gideon Rahat (eds.), Collegial Democracy versus Personal Democracy: ‘We' the People or ‘I the People. London: Routledge, pp. 1-15. Friedberg, Chen, and Gideon Rahat. 2024. "Collegial Democracy versus Personal Democracy," in Chen Friedberg and Gideon Rahat (eds.), Collegial Democracy versus Personal Democracy: ‘We' the People or ‘I' the People. London: Routledge, pp. 105-116. Rahat, Gideon. 2024. “Party Types in the Age of Personalized Politics.” Perspectives on Politics, 22(1): pp. 213-228. Further reading Renwick, Alan, and Jean-Benoit Pilet. 2018. “Personalization, Personalism and Electoral Systems,” in William P. Cross WP, Richard S. Katz and Scott Pruysers (eds) The Personalization of Democratic Politics and the Challenge for Political Parties. London: ECPR Press, pp. 19-38. Robert Harmel, Lars Svåsand, Hilmar Mjelde Harmel. 2024. "Personalization and De-Institutionalization: Our Common Conceptual Framework," 105 (3): 399-402. Chen Friedberg and Gideon Rahat (eds.), Collegial Democracy versus Personal Democracy: ‘We' the People or ‘I' the People. London: Routledge.
3. Media Personalization and Personalism Rahat, Gideon and Ofer Kenig. 2018. From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 154-160. Van Aelst, Peter, Tamir Sheafer, and James Stanyer. 2012. “The Personalization of Mediated Political Communication: A Review of Concepts, Operationalizations and Key Findings.” Journalism, 13(2): 203–220. Pruysers, Scott, and William P. Cross. 2018. “Personalism and Election Campaigning,” in William P. Cross WP, Richard S. Katz and Scott Pruysers (eds), The Personalization of Democratic Politics and the Challenge for Political Parties. London: ECPR Press, pp. 57-77. Zamir, Shahaf. 2024. "Explaining Online Personalized Politics: A Cross-National Comparative Analysis of Social Media Consumption of Parties and Leaders," Political Studies Review, 22(1): 108-137.
Further reading Karvonen Lauri. 2010. Chapter 4, “How Politics is Presented: Media and Personalization,” The Personalization of Politics: A Study of Parliamentary Democracies. Colchester: ECPR Press, pp. 85-99. Noon Nave, Nir, Limor Shifman, and Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt. 2018. “Talking It Personally: Features of Successful Political Posts on Facebook,” Social Media + Society, 4(3):1-12. Pedersen, Helene H. 2024. "Party soldiers on personal platforms? Politicians’ personalized use of social media," Party Politics, 30(1): 166-178. Balmas, Meital, and Tamir Sheafer. 2013. “Leaders First, Countries After: Mediated Political Personalization in the International Arena,” Journal of Communication, 63(3): 454–475.
4. Personalization and personalism in the behavior of politicians and voters Rahat, Gideon, and Ofer Kenig. 2018. From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 160-170. Wauters, Bram, Nicolas Bouteca, and Benjamin de Vet. 2021. “Personalization of Parliamentary Behaviour: Conceptualization and Empirical Evidence from Belgium (1995–2014),” Party Politics. 27(2): 246-257. da Silva, Ferreira, Frederico, Diego Garzia, and Andrea De Angelis. 2021. “From Party to Leader Mobilization? The Personalization of Voter Turnout.” Party Politics, 27(2):220-233.
Further reading Garzia, Diego, and Frederico Ferreira da Silva. 2021. “Negative Personalization and Voting Behavior in 14 Parliamentary Democracies, 1961–2018,” Electoral Studies, 71(2):1-11. Friedman, Avital, and Chen Friedberg. 2021. “Personalized Politics and Weakened Parties—An Axiom? Evidence from the Israeli Case,” Party Politics. 27(2):258-268. Pedersen, Helene Helboe, and Jennifer Anne vanHeerde-Hudson. 2019. “Two Strategies for Building a Personal Vote: Personalized Representation in the UK and Denmark,” Electoral Studies, 59 (1): 17-26. Chiru, Mihail. 2018. “Exploring the Role of Decentralized Personalization for Legislative Behaviour and Constituency Service,” in William P. Cross WP, Richard S. Katz and Scott Pruysers (eds), The Personalization of Democratic Politics and the Challenge for Political Parties. London: ECPR Press, pp. 143–161. Quinlan, Stephen, and Ian McAllister. 2022. “Leader or Party? Quantifying and Exploring Behavioral Personalization 1996–2019,” Party Politics, 28(1): 24–37. Ferreira da Silva, Frederico, & Patricio Costa. 2019. “Do We Need Warm Leaders? Exploratory Study of the Role of Voter Evaluations of Leaders’ Traits on Turnout in Seven European Countries,” European Journal of Political Research, 58(1): 117–140. Tsfati, Yariv and Jonathan Cohen. Shira Dvir-Gvirsman2, Keren Tsuriel, Israel Waismel-Manor, and R. Lance Holbert. 2022. “Political Para-Social Relationship as a Predictor of Voting Preferences in the Israeli 2019 Elections,” Communication Research, 49(8): 1118-1147.
5. A comprehensive comparative view, reasons for personalization Rahat, Gideon and Ofer Kenig. 2018. From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 125-136, 192-208, 223-254. Garzia, Diego, Frederico Ferreira da Silva & Andrea De Angelis. 2020. “Partisan Dealignment and the Personalisation of Politics in West European Parliamentary Democracies, 1961–2018, West European Politics, 45(2): 311-334.
Rahat, Gideon, and Tamir Sheafer. 2007. “The Personalization(s) of Politics: Israel 1949-2003,” Political Communication, 24(1): 65-80. Garzia, Diego, Frederico Ferreira da Silva, and Andrea De Angelis. 2020. “Image that Matters: News Media Consumption and Party Leader Effects on Voting Behaviour,” The International Journal of Press/Politics, 25(2): 238-259. Bøggild, Troels, Rosie Campbell, Marie Kaldahl Nielsen, Helene Helboe Pedersen and Jennifer Anne vanHeerde-Hudson. 2021. “Which Personality Fits Personalized Representation?” Party Politics. 27(2):269-281.
6. The political consequences of personalization Rahat, Gideon, and Ofer Kenig. 2018. From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 208-220. Frantz, Erica, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Carisa Nietsche, Joseph Wright. 2021. “How Personalist Politics Is Changing Democracies,” Journal of Democracy, 32(3): 94-108. Mauro Calise. 2010. "The Personalization of Power". Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review 4: 617-622. Gidron, Noam, Yotam Margalit, Lior Sheffer, and Itamar Yakir. 2023."Why masses support democratic backsliding." American Journal of Political Science.
Further reading Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Erica Frantz and Joseph Wright. 2017. “The Global Rise of Personalized Politics: It's Not Just Dictators Anymore,” The Washington Quarterly, 40(1): 7-19. Frantz, Erica, Andrea Kendall‑Taylor, Jia Li, and Joseph Wright. 2022. "Personalist Ruling Parties in Democracies." Democratization 29 (5): 918–938. Frantz, Erica, Andrea Kendall‑Taylor, Jia Li, and Joseph Wright. 2024. The Origins of Elected Strongmen: How Personalist Parties Destroy Democracy from Within. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Katz, Richard S. 2018. “Personalization, Party Government and Democracy,” in William P. Cross, Richard S. Katz and Scott Pruysers (eds), The Personalization of Democratic Politics and the Challenge for Political Parties. London: ECPR Press, pp. 215-232. Rhodes-Purdy, Matthew, and Raúl L. Madri. 2020. “The Perils of Personalism,“ Democratization, 27(2): 321-339. Fails, Matthew D. 2020. “Oil Income and the Personalization of Autocratic Politics,” Political Science Research and Methods, 8(4):772-779. Alexiadou, Despina and Eoin O'Malley. 2022. “The Leadership Dilemma: Examining the Impact of Strong Leaders on Parties.” European Journal of Political Research, 61(3):783-806. Aronson, Ori, Julia Elad-Strenger, Thomas Kessler, and Yuval Feldman. 2023. "Does Personalization of Officeholders Undermine the Legitimacy of the Office? On Perceptions of Objectivity in Legal Decision making." Regulation & Governance, 17(3): 833-850.
Last update: Perottino Michel, doc., Ph.D. (02.02.2026)
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