The Moral Competence of Spanish Councilors

Pedro Herrero García, Miguel Ángel Carbonero and Luis Jorge Martín Antón
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Pedro Herrero García: Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Miguel Ángel Carbonero: Grupo de Investigación de Excelencia GR179 Psicología de la Educación, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Valladolid, 47002 Valladolid, Spain
Luis Jorge Martín Antón: Grupo de Investigación de Excelencia GR179 Psicología de la Educación, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Valladolid, 47002 Valladolid, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-19

Abstract: The citizenship’s distrust of politicians clashes with the absence of research of politicians’ moral competence, which is a challenge to positive psychology. The objective of this work, approved by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, is to measure, for the first time, the moral competence of Spanish councilors and to explore its relationship with different independent variables. A sample of 625 councilors from all the territories of the country completed a questionnaire that includes the Moral Competence Test Moral Competence Test. Estimation parameters and hypothesis contrast methods were used for the statistical analysis of the obtained data. The results indicate that most of the Spanish councilors in the sample have low moral competence, which does not depend on any of the variables contemplated in the study. Councilors with high moral competence represent only 3.7%, with a profile corresponding more closely to that of people under 45 years of age, with university training, professionally linked to the private services sector, and dedicated exclusively to politics in a Town Hall.

Keywords: moral competence; corruption; policy; positive psychology; ideologization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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