Left–Right Ideological Identification in Kosovo

Abstract Occasionally, people and political parties in Kosovo self-identify with the left–right spectrum. But what does this identification really mean? Holding the findings from the Western democracies about the impact of personality traits on people’s ideological orientation as references, the authors compared how the same traits explain Kosovo citizens’ identification along both a self-reported ideological identification and a left–right ideological index of socio-political issues. The authors argue that the link between personality and orientation may be more universal than one may expect. They find that Kosovars understand their ideological orientation and self-identify along similar explanatory personality traits as in the West, and that the same personality traits better predict the ideological inclinations as defined by people’s sociopolitical attitudes (political compass) than their ideological self-identification. However, there is a mismatch with party preferences. The authors argue that this is a supply-side shortcoming – a consequence of party articulation and policy inconsistency vis-à-vis party ideological self-positioning.