Charakterologiczne przesłanki postawy demokratycznej w koncepcji Harolda D. Lasswella

Abstrakt

Psychological determinants of democratic attitude in politics in the Harold D. Lasswell conception

The article is a contribution to discussion on the role of psychological determinants of democratic attitude in politics. The author presents the contribution of Harold D. Lasswell on this issue. The beginning part of the article acquaints readers with Lasswell’s definitions of concepts such as: power, politics and democracy, which are based on his distributive approach to politics. The subsequent part depicts Lasswellian idea of personality and character with particular emphasis on the relation between conscious and unconscious elements of personality. The author concludes that this relation has a crucial meaning for stability of democratic preferences. The strength and durability of democratic attitude depends on the support it receives from the unconscious part of personality and the way it is rooted in intrapsychic dynamics of political actor.