Democracy’s challengers: need for chaos and desire for greatness in German political culture

Liberal democracy has been under pressure from the success of populist radical right parties, high levels of affective polarization, and an increasing number of citizens who feel left behind by established political elites. In this novel survey study from Germany in 2023, we examine psychological profiles that we hypothesize are more or less detached from democratic values: we combine the constructs Need for Chaos, recently developed, and Desire for Greatness, a synthesis of “dark personality” traits such as Machiavellianism and narcissism. Thus, we conceptualize and empirically test the claim that status-seeking is a core motivation for overcoming the current political order. Specifically, we argue that extreme political discontent should be particularly strongly expressed by people high in both Need for Chaos and Desire for Greatness as they are motivated to deconstruct societal institutions and personally gain in the process of reconstruction. We identify latent profiles varying in the degree of Need for Chaos and Desire for Greatness. Subsequently, we demonstrate which socio-demographic factors relate to the profile high in both Need for Chaos and Desire for Greatness, and show its political relevance. Our study has implications for public and scientific discourse about polarization and developments that potentially erode liberal democracy.