Are Maltese politics ideological or personalised? : a sociological analysis

Abstract

This dissertation aims to examine sociologically if Maltese politics are ideological or personalised. The aspects of personalism that are synonymous with small states, and the role of ideology, will be analysed. The researcher chose these two factors to see what sort of impact personalism has on Maltese politics, the relevance of ideologies in Malta and if the closeness between politicians and people overrides ideological beliefs or if these two go hand in hand. Other critical related factors were not excluded. This dissertation aims to find out the main motivations of politicians for their political involvement in Malta, the primary sources of which make the political parties identifiable, and whether there are commonalities and differences between the different political parties and participants. The qualitative research used convenience sampling to collect data from ten elite interviews. Some of the respondents are high-ranking party officials, while others are politicians with frontline experience in electoral politics. Nine of the interviewees are from five different political parties, and another interviewee is an independent candidate. The interviews were semi-structured. It was interesting to see how diverse the perspectives on the same issues are, where the views of politicians coming from various political parties diverge and where they converge. There were even instances where the opinions of the main political parties matched while the views of the other political parties were in opposition to the matched opinions of the PN and PL. There were times when all the personalities from different political parties held similar viewpoints and other times when differences between minor parties appeared between them. Some differences between the major political parties also occurred. From the results, one can highlight that politics in Malta is neither too personalised, in the sense that it revolves around gifts and personal benefits, nor too ideological, in the sense that closed ideologies prevail. Nevertheless, personalism in Maltese politics exists. Although some abuse the system and other negative aspects, there are the positive aspects too. As seen in the dissertation, the ideologies of the main political parties have aligned more to the centre, which can help reach the different sectors and strata of the country. Apart from that, the other political parties have their principles, which are more precise and more recognisable. However, their popularity is far lower than that of PL and PN.