All the president’s people? The origins of affective attachment towards political leaders

This dissertation examines the origins and development of affective attachment to political leaders—termed Presidential Identification (Pres-ID)—by investigating how political contexts and exposure shape emotional connections between voters and political leaders. Drawing on scholarship about partisanship, social identity, and leader-follower relationships, this study proposes Pres-ID as an alternative conceptualization of partisanship in democracies where the traditional notion of affection to political parties is weak or absent. Across four empirical chapters, the study combines longitudinal surveys, experimental studies, and cross-national data to identify both contextual and micro-level mechanisms that generate Pres-ID. The five-wave repeated cross-sectional surveys in the first empirical chapter investigate campaign dynamics in Indonesia, showing that Pres-ID fluctuates throughout the electoral cycle, with a notable increase approaching election day. Panel data further indicate that accumulated exposure to political content and candidate messaging strengthens affective bonds, revealing the role of campaign communication and timing in shaping Pres-ID. The second empirical chapter also looks at Indonesia and focuses on how exposure to a ground-level instantiation of campaign strategies fosters identification. The results of a spatial analysis of a post-canvassing survey show that direct or visible canvassing efforts significantly influence affective attachment. Particularly, canvasser visit triggers Pres-ID to a greater extent than canvassing materials. Geolocational analysis indicates that proximity to campaign activity enhances the likelihood of emotional connections to a candidate. The third empirical chapter employs two survey experiments to explore how voters respond to prototypical leaders, along with their antagonistic political messaging, from candidates with either Islamist or nationalist profiles. Results show that affective attachment is most responsive to antagonistic appeals delivered by Islamist candidates, suggesting that religion-based prototypicality acts as a critical source of emotional resonance. Using cross-national analysis, the last empirical chapter demonstrates that higher levels of political competitiveness are associated with stronger levels of affective attachment to presidential candidates. This finding supports theories that heightened political rivalry intensifies emotional political identification. Taken together, these findings contribute to a growing body of scholarship on political identity, partisanship, and affective polarization by showing how presidential identification emerges when strategic campaigning fuels voter exposure to political messages. The dissertation concludes by highlighting the implications of the results for theories of personalized partisanship in multi-cleavage societies. It offers directions for future research on emotional political engagement in leader-centric democracies.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Budi, Arya

Contributors dc:contributor

• Winters, Matthew S
• Canache, Damarys J
• Mondak, Jeffery J
• Sin, Gisela

• presidential identification
• partisanship
• affection

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Arya Budi

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132534

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132534