This chapter surveys how the field has addressed the central puzzles of political leadership by discussing several key dichotomies that have been the focal point of scholarly inquiry and debate past and present: leaders and leadership; democrats and dictators; causes and consequences; actors and context; personal qualities and luck; success and failure; and art and science. The authors conclude that the study of leadership is a somewhat bewildering enterprise because there is no unified theory of leadership. There are too many definitions, and too many theories in too many disciplines. They do not agree on the meaning of leadership, on how to study it, or even why we study it. The subject is not just beset by dichotomies; it is also multifaceted, and essentially contested. Finally, the authors provide a brief conspectus of the Handbook.

/pdf/puzzles-of-political-leadership-149w7nol8e.pdf

Puzzles of political leadership

This article argues that the way we understand presidential success should be different for presidents in different contexts. It provides the first deeper exploration of success for Skowronek's “disjunctive” presidents and finds that, particularly when these presidents engage in policy experimentation, they can play an important role in preparing the way for a later reconstruction. Although the presidents of disjunction are particularly constrained, they are capable of success as long as we judge them realistically and acknowledge that they may receive little credit for their concrete achievements. We illustrate this contention through the presidencies of Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter, which exemplify the degrees of success available within the constraints of a faltering partisan regime.

The Impossible Leadership Situation? Analyzing Success for Disjunctive Presidents

There is much criticism of political leaders and leadership in contemporary political commentary and the public debate around the globe. Yet more than anything else this criticism indicates that leaders and leadership are believed to matter for the overall performance of political regimes, and the relations between different regimes. This belief seems to be largely justified. Indeed, the ever-growing complexity of politics in an increasingly interdependent world has made leadership in terms of providing direction and guidance, and devising solutions for collective problems, more important than ever.

Introduction: The Importance of Studying Political Leadership Comparatively

The article reports the results from the latest survey of academic experts polled on the performance of post-1945 prime ministers. Academic specialists in British politics and history rate Clement Attlee as the best postwar prime minister, with Margaret Thatcher in second place just ahead of Tony Blair in third place. Gordon Brown's stint in Number 10 was the third-worst since the Second World War, according to the respondents to the survey that rated his premiership as less successful than that of John Major. The article compares public and academic opinion and rankings of prime ministers and their performance, noting significant discrepancies in contemporary and retrospective evaluations. Academic respondents to the survey also provided detailed ratings and evaluations of the performance and policy impact of the four prime ministers since 1979: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

/pdf/the-postwar-premiership-league-iqkzsahuah.pdf

The Postwar Premiership League

While the grand narratives of political leaders and leadership in parliamentary democracies tend to centre on victorious campaigners, prime ministers ‘inheriting’ the office from their predecessor between two parliamentary elections are a widespread occurrence in constitutional practice. Focusing on four Westminster democracies (Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), this article inquires how such heirs apparent have fared in terms of prime ministerial performance. Although in light of their experience, expertise and public recognition, heir apparent prime ministers can be, and have been, considered to be particularly well placed to succeed, when eventually securing the most powerful political office, most of them have actually been conspicuous under-performers. The single most important and strongly counter-intuitive finding of an empirical investigation of different prime ministers is that extensive experience in government, both in terms of duration and diversity of ministerial offices held, seems to correlate more with failed rather than particularly successful premierships.

Heir Apparent Prime Ministers in Westminster Democracies: Promise and Performance

Contents: An Introduction, Human Nature and Environmentalism German Ecologists and British Aristocrats American Conservationism, A Gentleman's Concern Preparing the Way The Post-War Years Environmentalism Arrives Misanthropic Giving The Aristocratic Nature of Environmentalism Marx on Malthus The Aristocratic Opposition to Progress A Conclusion Bibliography Index

The uses and abuses of presidential ratings

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The uses and abuses of presidential ratings