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4.7: Leadership and the Qualities of Political Leaders

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• Robert W. Maloy & Torrey Trust
• University of Massachusetts via EdTech Books

Standard 4.7: Leadership and the Qualities of Political Leaders

Apply the knowledge of the meaning of leadership and the qualities of good leaders to evaluate political leaders in the community, state, and national levels. (Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Studies) [8.T4.7]

FOCUS QUESTION: What is effective political leadership?

Standard 4.7 addresses political leadership and the qualities that people seek in those they choose for leadership roles in democratic systems of government.

Leadership involves multiple skills and talents. It has been said that an effective leader is someone who knows "when to lead, when to follow, and when to get out of the way" (the phrase is attributed to the American revolutionary Thomas Paine). In this view, effective leaders do much more than give orders. They create a shared vision for the future and viable strategic plans for the present. They negotiate ways to achieve what is needed while also listening to what is wanted. They incorporate individuals and groups into processes of making decisions and enacting policies by developing support for their plans.

Different organizations need different types of leaders. A commercial profit-making firm needs a leader who can grow the business while balancing the interests of consumers, workers, and shareholders. An athletic team needs a leader who can call the plays and manage the personalities of the players to achieve success on the field and off it. A school classroom needs a teacher-leader who knows the curriculum and pursues the goal of ensuring that all students can excel academically, socially, and emotionally. Governments—local, state, and national—need political leaders who can fashion competing ideas and multiple interests into policies and practices that will promote equity and opportunity for all.

The Massachusetts learning standard on which the following modules are based refers to the "qualities of good leaders," but what does a value-laden word like "good" mean in political and historical contexts? "Effective leadership" is a more nuanced term. What is an effective political leader? In the view of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, "A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be."

Examples of effective leaders include:

• Esther de Berdt is not a well-known name, but during the Revolutionary War, she formed the Ladies Association of Philadelphia to provide aid (including raising more than $300,000 dollars and making thousands of shirts) for George Washington's Continental Army.
• Mary Ellen Pleasant was an indentured servant on Nantucket Island, an abolitionist leader before the Civil War and a real estate and food establishment entrepreneur in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, amassing a fortune of $30 million dollars which she used to defend Black people accused of crimes. Although she lost all her money in legal battles and died in poverty, she is recognized today as the " Mother of Civil Rights in California ."
• Ida B. Wells , born a slave in Mississippi in 1862, began her career as a teacher and spent her life fighting for Black civil rights as a journalist, anti-lynching crusader and political activist. She was 22 years-old in 1884 when she refused to give up her seat to a White man on a railroad train and move to a Jim Crow car, for which she was thrown off the train. She won her court case, but that judgement was later reversed by a higher court. She was a founder of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Women.
• Sylvia Mendez , the young girl at the center of the 1946 Mendez v. Westminster landmark desegregation case; Chief John Ross , the Cherokee leader who opposed the relocation of native peoples known as the Trail of Tears; and Fred Korematsu , who challenged the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, are discussed elsewhere in this book.

The INVESTIGATE and UNCOVER modules for this topic explore five more women and men, straight and gay, Black and White, who demonstrated political leadership throughout their lives. ENGAGE asks who would you consider are the most famous Americans in United States history?

Modules for this Standard Include:

• INVESTIGATE: Frances Perkins, Margaret Sanger, and Harvey Milk - Three Examples of Political Leadership
• UNCOVER: Benjamin Banneker, George Washington Carver, and Black Inventors' Contributions to Math, Science, and Politics
• MEDIA LITERACY CONNECTIONS: Celebrities' Influence on Politics

4.7.1 INVESTIGATE: Frances Perkins, Margaret Sanger, and Harvey Milk - Three Examples of Political Leadership

Three individuals offer ways to explore the multiple dimensions of political leadership and social change in the United States: one who was appointed to a government position, one who assumed a political role as public citizen, and one who was elected to political office.

• Appointed: An economist and social worker, Frances Perkins was appointed as Secretary of Labor in 1933, the first woman to serve in a President Cabinet.
• Assumed: Margaret Sanger was a nurse and political activist who became a champion of reproductive rights for women. She opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn in 1916.
• Elected: Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official in California in 1977. He was assassinated in 1978. By 2020, a LGBTQ politician has been elected to a political office in every state.

Frances Perkins and the Social Security Act of 1935

An economist and social worker, Frances Perkins was Secretary of Labor during the New Deal—the first woman member of a President’s Cabinet. Learn more: Frances Perkins, 'The Woman Behind the New Deal.'

Francis Perkins was a leader in the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 that created a national old-age insurance program while also giving support to children, the blind, the unemployed, those needing vocational training, and family health programs. By the end of 2018, the Social Security trust funds totaled nearly $2.9 trillion. There is more information at the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page Frances Perkins and the Social Security Act .

Margaret Sanger and the Struggle for Reproductive Rights

Margaret Sanger was a women's reproductive rights and birth control advocate who, throughout a long career as a political activist, achieved many legal and medical victories in the struggle to provide women with safe and effective methods of contraception. She opened the nation's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York in 1916.

Margaret Sanger's collaboration with Gregory Pincus led to the development and approval of the birth control pill in 1960. Four years later, in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court affirmed women's constitutional right to use contraceptives. There is more information at the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page Margaret Sanger and Reproductive Rights for Women .

However, Margaret Sanger's political and public health views include disturbing facts. In summer 2020, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York said it would remove her name from a Manhattan clinic because of her connections to eugenics, a movement for selective breeding of human beings that targeted the poor, people with disabilities, immigrants and people of color.

Harvey Milk, Gay Civil Rights Leader

In 1977, Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California by winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the city’s legislative body.

To win that election, Harvey Milk successfully built a coalition of immigrant, elderly, minority, union, gay, and straight voters focused on a message of social justice and political change. He was assassinated after just 11 months in office, becoming a martyr for the gay rights movement. There is more information at a resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page, Harvey Milk, Gay Civil Rights Leader .

Suggested Learning Activities

• What personal qualities and public actions do you think make a person a leader?
• Who do you consider to be an effective leader in your school? In a job or organization in the community? In a civic action group?
• How can you become a leader in your school or community?

Online Resources for Frances Perkins, Margaret Sanger, and Harvey Milk

• Frances Perkins , FDR Presidential Library and Museum
• Her Life: The Woman Behind the New Deal , Frances Perkins Center
• Margaret Sanger Biography , National Women's History Museum
• Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) , American Experience PBS
• Harvey Milk Lesson Plans using James Banks’ Four Approaches to Multicultural Teaching , Legacy Project Education Initiative
• Harvey Milk pages from the New York Times
• Teaching LGBTQ History and Why It Matters , Facing History and Ourselves
• Official Harvey Milk Biography
• Harvey Milk's Political Accomplishments
• Harvey Milk: First Openly Gay Male Elected to Public Office in the United States, Legacy Project Education Initiative

4.7.2 UNCOVER: Benjamin Banneker, George Washington Carver, and Black Inventors' Contributions to Math, Science, and Politics

Benjamin banneker.

Benjamin Banneker was a free Black astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, author, and farmer who was part of the commission which made the original survey of Washington, D.C. in 1791.

Benjamin Banneker was "a man of many firsts" ( Washington Interdependence Council, 2017, para. 1 ). In the decades before and after the American Revolution, he made the first striking clock made of indigenous American parts, he was the first to track the 17-year locust cycle, and he was among the first farmers to employ crop rotation to improve yield.

Between 1792 and 1797, Banneker published a series of annual almanacs of astronomical and tidal information with weather predictions, doing all the mathematical and scientific calculations himself ( Benjamin Banneker's Almanac ). He has been called the first Black Civil Rights leader because of his opposition to slavery and his willingness to speak out against the mistreatment of Native Americans.

George Washington Carver

Born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri around 1864, George Washington Carver became a world-famous chemist and agricultural researcher. It is said that he single-handedly revolutionized southern agriculture in the United States, including researching more than 300 uses of peanuts, introducing methods of prevent soil depletion, and developing crop rotation methods.

A monument in Diamond, Missouri, of a statue showing Carver as a young boy, was the first ever national memorial to honor an African American ( George Washington Carver National Monument ).

Benjamin Banneker and George Washington Carver are just two examples from the long history of Black Inventors in the United States. Many of the names and achievements are not known today - Elijah McCoy, Granville Woods, Madame C J Walker, Thomas L. Jennings, Henry Blair, Norbert Rillieux, Garrett Morgan, Jan Matzeliger - but with 50,000 total patents, Black people accounted for more inventions during the period 1870 to 1940 than immigrants from every country except England and Germany ( The Black Inventors Who Elevated the United States: Reassessing the Golden Age of Invention , Brookings (November 23, 2020).

You can learn more details about these innovators at the African American Inventors of the 19th Century page on the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki.

• Create 3D digital artifacts (using TinkerCad or another 3D modeling software ) that represent Banneker's and Carver's contributions to math, science, and politics.
• Bonus Points: Create a board (or digital) game that incorporates the 3D artifacts and educates others about Banneker and Carver.
• Using the online resources below and your own Internet research findings, write a people's history for Benjamin Banneker or George Washington Carver.

Online Resources for Benjamin Banneker, George Washington Carver and Black Inventors

• Benjamin Banneker from Mathematicians of the African Diaspora , University of Buffalo
• Mathematician and Astronomer Benjamin Banneker Was Born November 8, 1731 , Library of Congress
• Benjamin Banneker, African American Author, Surveyor and Scientist, resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page
• George Washingto n Car ver , National Peanut Board
• George Washington Carver, State Historical Society of Missouri
• 16 Surprising Facts about George Washington Carver , National Peanut Board

4.7.3 ENGAGE: Who Do You Think Are the Most Famous Americans?

In 2007 and 2008, Sam Wineburg and a group of Stanford University researchers asked 11th and 12th grade students to write names of the most famous Americans in history from Columbus to the present day ( Wineburg & Monte-Sano, 2008 ). The students could not include any Presidents on the list. The students were then asked to write the names of the five most famous women in American history. They could not list First Ladies.

To the surprise of the researchers, girls and boys from across the country, in urban and rural schools, had mostly similar lists: Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, and Benjamin Franklin were the top five selections. Even more surprising, surveys of adults from an entirely different generation produced remarkably similar lists.

The researchers concluded that a broad "cultural curriculum" conveyed through media images, corporate advertising, and shared information has a far greater effect on what is learned about people in history than do textbooks and classes in schools.

Media Literacy Connections: Celebrities' Influence on Politics

During elections, celebrities might endorse a political candidate or issue in hopes that their fans will follow in their footsteps. Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of Barack Obama for President in 2008 has been cited as the most impactful celebrity endorsement in history ( U.S. Election: What Impact Do Celebrity Endorsements Really Have? The Conversation , October 4, 2016).

Do celebrity endorsements make a real difference for voters? Researchers are undecided. In 2018, 65,000 people registered to vote in Tennessee after Taylor Swift (who had 180 million followers on Instagram) endorsed two Democratic Congressional candidates - one candidate won and the other lost. Swift's endorsement was followed by more than 212,000 new voter registrations across the country, mostly among those in the 18 to 24 age group. Perhaps what celebrities say has more impact on younger voters?

Can you think of some examples of celebrities who have shared their political views or endorsements on social media? Who are these celebrities? In what ways did they influence politics?

In these activities, you will analyze media endorsements by celebrities, and then develop a request (or pitch) to convince a celebrity to endorse your candidate for President in the next election.

• Activity 1: Analyze Celebrity Endorsements in the Media
• Activity 2: Request a Celebrity Endorsement for a Presidential Candidate
• As a class or with a group of friends, write individual lists of the 10 most famous or influential Americans in United States history.
• Explore similarities and differences across the lists.
• How many women or people of color were on the lists?
• Investigate the reasons for the similarities and differences.
• Returning to the Sam Wineburg study, "Why were Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and LGBTQ individuals left off the lists?" (see the full study here: " 'Famous Americans': The Changing Pantheon of American Heroes ")
• Research an individual's work and contributions, and in 200-250 words describe who they are, why you selected them, and what aspect of their work is important to the field. Within your description, include at least 2 links relevant to this individual ( Plan from Royal Roads University ).

Standard 4.7 Conclusion

Effective political leadership is an essential ingredient of a vibrant democracy. Unlike dictators or despots, effective leaders offer plans for change and invite people to join in and help to achieve those goals. Effective leaders work collaboratively and cooperatively, not autocratically. INVESTIGATE looked at three democratic leaders who entered political life in different ways: Frances Perkins, who was appointed to a Presidential Cabinet; Margaret Sanger, who assumed a public role as an advocate and activist; and Harvey Milk, who was elected to political office. UNCOVER reviewed the life and accomplishments of Benjamin Banneker and George Washington Carver. ENGAGE asked who people think are the most famous Americans in United States history.

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A New Political Leadership for the Twenty-First Century

Photo: RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images

Table of Contents

Report by Marcos Peña

Published December 8, 2021

Available Downloads

• Download the Full Report 121kb
• Download the Spanish Report 154kb

Rethinking the Personal Dimension of Politics

This work comes from a personal search. In December 2019, after 16 years in public office, I finished my job as chief of cabinet of ministers for President Mauricio Macri’s administration in Argentina. At 42 years old, and after many years of being at the political forefront, I was drained and decided to step back a bit to be able to have perspective and process the lived experience.

I had the invaluable collaboration of Alberto Lederman, an Argentine consultant on leadership and organizations, for that process. He is a wise man who taught me a lot on the importance of the human and personal dimension of leadership. I learned many of the ideas that I write in this paper from him, his experience, his perspective, and from the many conversations we have had in the past three years. He also helped me understand that in order to help others you must take care of yourself.  

At first, I organized the task by writing about and reviewing the political process that had taken us from the creation of a new local party in 2003 in the city of Buenos Aires to governing the country. What had we learned? What had gone well and what hadn’t? What were the innovations that we were able to implement and what were the changes that were not achieved? Finally, I wanted to try to understand clearly why we could not win the reelection, frustrating a transformation process that had generated great hope in the country and in the region.

As I progressed with that task, I did more personal work, trying to better understand what I had felt and lived in those years. I wanted to avoid remaining trapped in the intensity of what I had experienced, as I saw it happen many times to those who held an important position and remained stuck in that experience.

One of the lessons learned took place when I asked people I had worked with to help me take a closer look at things I had to work on or that stood out. I had nearly 50 conversations asking feedback on a more personal level, and what struck me was how emotional issues and interpersonal bonding always came up. What each one took away from the shared experience were hopes, enthusiasm, frustrations, disagreements, joy, and sadness. Of course, political, managerial, or ideological discussions also arose, but they were always within the framework of what they experienced on a personal level.

What I learned confirmed that there was something worth exploring further. I began to work more systematically to understand the personal and human dimensions of leadership. I was finding valuable people and tools that could be useful for other leaders who would face challenges like those I had faced. And I saw that there was a different perspective of the world of leadership to explore—different from the more rational one in which I had been trained, first as a graduate student in political science, then as a politician. That process outlined the path that led to this paper.

The Personal Dimension of Politics

In general, the formation of a politician is rational, and he tends to omit his personhood as his career progresses. This omission takes him away from a more comprehensive look at himself, generating potential mental, physical, and emotional health problems that end up amplifying self-reliance and the difficulty of making emotional connections.

As you grow in your political career and assume more tasks, a defense mechanism is triggered that takes you to survival mode, a state that each person lives differently, but that generally puts you on the defensive—more disconnected from emotions, less able to empathize with other people. Living in permanent conflict, defending positions, making decisions, and receiving criticism and attacks leads to an addictive model where tactical operations become the habitual drug.

In general, the formation of a politician is rational, and he tends to omit his personhood as his career progresses.

Added to this complicated dynamic are the trappings of fame and public exposure. Being well known in a hyper-communication society like the one we live in is something that has an impact on the individual and their family. It is neither neutral nor natural. It restricts your freedom, it has an impact on the people around you, and it redefines relationships. In short, it increases loneliness and unleashes those defense mechanisms. But nobody prepares you for that. It is an omitted phenomenon, even though it would seem to be quite obvious that by dedicating oneself to politics, one ends up becoming well known.

Political science in general does not focus on understanding fame and how it impacts a person. It is also something that has changed significantly in recent years with the advancement of digital communication. Let’s think about how smartphones have become widespread in the last 10 years, giving rise to platforms such as YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram or platforms such as Netflix and Spotify that did not exist until relatively recently. That led me to try to better understand other worlds where similar phenomena occur, such as the worlds of sports and entertainment. I found many parallels, many similar situations, and many metaphors that could help me better understand the challenges I had experienced. But it also allowed me to see how the new communications reality is impacting these worlds, since today’s artists and athletes also receive demands from society that they have not been prepared for.

Understanding the world of sports provides insight into what it takes to perform at the highest levels, even in other fields. Looking at the political experience from the person’s perspective—the individual’s perspective—and not just from the ideological, intellectual, or institutional perspective allowed me to see that there were many tools available that were not being leveraged and that could be very useful. I also saw that there were new realities that required new approaches.

I also looked for experiences in the business world, where there are many biographies and a large amount of content dedicated to rethinking how human capital is organized and how it is developed. It is clearly seen there how the old vertical and pyramidal corporate model is being overcome by a more horizontal and collaborative leadership. Today’s most dynamic companies invest time and resources thinking about these issues, something very difficult to find in the world of politics.

Another Pandemic: A Crisis of Leadership and Representation

In parallel, I was fortunate to be able to work with political leaders from several Latin American countries, generally helping them on issues of strategic communication and electoral campaign management—issues that I have been working on for many years.

That regional perspective allowed me to see firsthand the loneliness and lack of tools that many young and emerging leaders experience across the continent. The muscles that end up being overdeveloped are narcissism and self-sufficiency—not as a defect, but as a survival tool. They are all overwhelmed, trying to lead with a very weak political institutional framework, like boats in the middle of a rough sea.

There was little point in asking them to think strategically, to design a more horizontal and empathetic leadership, to allow for team building, or to think long term, because they were basically trying to survive from day to day.

In moments of euphoria when they had been doing well in their circumstances, their self-sufficiency increased; in moments of decline and crisis, depression and paralysis were enhanced. But this is not an individual problem; it is more structural in nature. Often, this goes unnoticed because the problem of leadership is not usually looked at from a broader perspective, amplifying the feeling that it is something that only affects one’s own country.

The Covid-19 pandemic acted as an accelerator for this trend, exponentially increasing complexity and uncertainty and making the task much trickier due to the difficulty of drawing a roadmap and due to the impact on the individual’s day-to-day life. In addition, the explosion of the virtual world strengthened the trend toward a life without intermediation and with fewer meeting spaces, where it is more difficult for us to find ourselves.

This also exposed how limited our national and international institutions have become in tackling global issues. As Yuval Noah Harari suggests in his book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century , we must think of institutional solutions that can face global issues more effectively than our current solutions. Think of “the connection between the great revolutions of our era and the inner life of individuals.” That is why he recommends meditation. Think of the global and the personal as two scales for the twenty-first century.

Updating Political Leadership

Barbara Tuchman asked how good human beings are at leading us in her book March of Folly , telling us: “A remarkable phenomenon throughout history beyond place or period is the execution of policies from governments that are contrary to their own interests. Humanity, it would seem, performs worse on government than on almost any other human activity. In this realm, wisdom, defined as the exercise of judgment based on experience, common sense, and available information, is less operative and more thwarted than it should be.”

Historically, political leadership was embodied by people who based their power on not being equal to the rest of human beings. Kings, emperors, and chiefs alike were characterized by being superhuman—beings who bordered on the divine or who were chosen by the deities. The architecture of power reflects that distance, which hid and alienated the leader from his subjects. It was a vertical and highly personalistic power.

Over time, that type of leadership was questioned, and a more rational—and, in some parts of the world, more democratic—leadership was sought, although we still see personalist and populist charismatic leaders persist today. We also see leaders who are deified and who did not have this characteristic but who, after their death, are taken to the cult of personality, distancing them from their human condition.

In the book In Sickness and in Power , David Owen shows us the reality behind this deification, narrating in medical-professional detail the mental and physical health problems that the great leaders of the twentieth century had, especially the so-called Hubris Syndrome . He defines it as a temporary disorder suffered by people with power, characterized by the exaltation of the ego, excessiveness, contempt for the opinions of others, loss of contact with reality, and other problems that lead to self-destruction.

This conception of leadership also has another very complex side effect: it scares many people away from the possibility of becoming leaders. If you think that to be a leader you must be a chosen one, somebody superior from the rest, then it’s probable you will exclude yourself from that category. Understanding that the heroes, the founding fathers, and the great leaders of humanity were and are as human as everyone else is key.

In Latin America, this vertical tradition was combined with the culture of the caudillo, which combines religious elements with a power based on being the incarnation of the people. That leadership style always had dramatic aspects of sacrifice and of express omission of oneself for the “love of the people.” The leader never retires; he is always willing to sacrifice longer for the people. It does not occur to him to train new people and he can justify corruption or any abuse of power in his redemptive mission.

This tradition coexisted with a more liberal political culture, which promoted a leadership more attuned with that of the Saxon countries: institutional and republican. The difficulty many of these leaders have is that they tend to have a technocratic or bureaucratic background, but little capacity to connect emotionally with the population. A leader’s training may be intellectual, and his experience may come from management, but that does not necessarily give him the tools for emotional bonding.

In Latin America, this vertical tradition was combined with the culture of the caudillo, which combines religious elements with a power based on being the incarnation of the people. That leadership style always had dramatic aspects of sacrifice and of express omission of oneself for the “love of the people.”

Both are vertical models, and if we look at the last decades in the region, we will see them competing with different levels of success depending on the country. But over time, a crisis of representation has grown in much of the continent. Societies that have radically changed the way they connect, consume, and inform themselves must choose between political leaders who continue to try to replicate outdated formulas and emerging leaders who are unprepared or opportunistic, building on people’s resentment and disenchantment.

Resentment and disenchantment exacerbate the problem, since many see political leaders at best as a privileged group unable to solve problems and at worst as corrupt individuals who take advantage of and abuse power. So, any remuneration is going to be too high, any leisure is going to be seen as superfluous, any weakness as inability. It is a model destined to fail because nothing good can come out of that dynamic.

The crisis of political representation is not a problem of demand—understood as what citizens expect from leaders—but rather a problem stemming from the difficulties of the leaders. That is why we should rethink the leadership model. We need to prepare our politicians not only in ethical and moral values and in management capabilities, but also in understanding the world. We must also help them to fully know themselves; take care of themselves; and prepare mentally, emotionally, and physically for the hyper-demanding task of ruling without losing touch with their humanity, thus reducing the risk of Hubris Syndrome.

In this context of volatility, uncertainty, and complexity, we should look at the human dimension, seeing empathy and an emotional bond with the population as a basic and necessary condition. That requires moving away from caudillista, messianic, charismatic, or technocratic leadership models. Awareness of your humanity and connection with others is a path that helps prevent the evils of abuse of power or bad rulers. In ancient Rome, the Caesars had a slave whose task was to whisper in their ear that they were mortal. Since the existence of man, there has been insight into how power impacts the individual, how to prevent the madness of power, and how to ensure good rulers.

We should also think of a more collective and group dimension to leadership, understanding that we should not expect a single person to effectively manage so much complexity. We should look at the models of groups, teams, and orchestras, where there is someone who leads more like a coordinator of a team of peers, not as a messianic leader. This leadership model can lead us to a breakthrough in thinking of ways for the electoral political supply to rest not on a single person, but rather on teams that put shared work as a value before society.

Political leadership should be designed in such a way as to reduce the risks of self-sufficiency, of the group mentality that usually surrounds personalistic leadership, and of unsustainability due to the concentration of risks assumed by those who excessively become the decisionmakers. This will make room for the emotional component that reduces the dehumanization produced by the wear and tear of the exercise of power.

The institutional design of the state and political organizations is old and obsolete, making it difficult to think about this different type of leadership. The very architecture of government buildings reflects a culture not even from the twentieth century, but often from the nineteenth century or earlier. All the symbols of power that continue to be used, especially in the international relations protocol, are in dissonance with a world that has advanced to another place. The current leadership model is pompous, vertical, cold, and distant. Presidents spend many hours and days in ceremonies that are often seen by citizens as archaic and somewhat ridiculous dances.

That is why it becomes so important to think about how to help leaders get out of that model. Otherwise, it is very difficult to maintain a connection from that place to a society that lives in another time and in another world.

Who Takes Care of Political Leaders?

As the crisis in representation and political parties escalates, there is no institution today that is well positioned to work on the training, development, and care of the human capital dedicated to political leadership.

Civil society organizations, academic institutions, foundations, and think tanks that work to support political training have a specific approach, which is important in that it provides tools, but it cannot replace day-to-day or long-term strategies.

It would not be enough for a player of any elite sport to take a clinic for a couple of weeks a year to train and educate himself, nor would it help him if his training only took place during his four years at a university. There’s no question in worlds such as high-performance sports that for a person to perform at their maximum potential, certain things are required in addition to their talent and will: training, taking care of their physical body, working on their mental health, having a team that accompanies the athlete, and using technology that allows for performance evaluation. The team is led by a coach who is accompanied by specialists in various disciplines, such as nutrition, physical preparation, psychological support, and technology.

There is none of that in politics today because we do not conceive of it as a high-performance activity and because there are no institutions prepared to carry out this task.

That leads one to wonder why the health of leaders is still a taboo subject. In all countries, there has been a push to request affidavits of candidates’ net worth and assets, but the need to have affidavits of their mental and physical health is rarely considered. A soccer player must have a medical checkup before joining a club, but a minister joins a government without anyone knowing if he is healthy or has any illnesses. A leader’s health is thought to be a matter of privacy, but all other areas of his life are expected to be transparent and public. What does that tell us about how we conceive of leadership? What impact would it have for a politician to acknowledge that he suffers from problems with alcoholism, anxiety, eating disorders, insomnia, or panic attacks? Would it distance him from the general public, or would it connect him with the reality that a large part of society experiences?

If we do not prepare and support our leaders, we cannot expect to have good results. One must wonder why there is so much investment, technology, and science devoted to training and caring for people who are dedicated to other tasks that have much less impact on our society, but we do not do the same with the people who take on the task of political leadership.

Some may argue that this training task is the responsibility of each person who wants to run for a leadership position, and that this selection will be done through elections. But I contend that it is a serious mistake to think that coming to power is sufficient evidence of one’s ability and preparation.

The citizen chooses among people who are willing to enter politics and who combine virtues and abilities, but who will never be able to embody all of them. In addition, each citizen prioritizes different criteria when choosing. For some, the most important thing is that a political leader be a person of integrity; for others, that they have management skills; for others, that they be a person sensitive to their problems; or perhaps, simply, that they channel a citizen’s anger or resentment.

But even if one assumes that the selection method is effective for choosing the most suitable people to lead, leaders come to power through elections with weak political parties, rules and institutions riddled with political struggles, and a skeptical citizenry with unresolved high demands. They will take their public position with lower salaries than the ones they could have in the private sector, with high personal and family exposure, with the certainty of having legal problems in the future—sometimes even running the risk of going to jail—and with too few tools to meet the demands made upon them. It is natural, then, that in this context the leader does not perform at his best and that defense mechanisms are built to survive.

Therefore, it is an issue of efficiency, which leads us to think that politicians should be trained and supported in a different way. It does not make sense to think that we can have good results in our societies without it. It is like thinking that we will win a soccer world cup or a gold medal in the Olympic games without all the preparation and the coaching and training of these athletes.

The intention of this work is not to close the debate by proposing a comprehensive solution. It seeks to alert us to the problem so that we become aware and work creatively, thinking of possible solutions. We cannot think that we will have healthy leadership with leaders who are not healthy themselves, and it is impossible to think that they will be if they do not have the tools and the help to go through the experience of handling power.

Expanding the Toolbox

The following are nine dimensions that should be included in a political leader’s toolbox. Not intended to be exhaustive academic research on each topic, the objectives of this section are: (1) that it serves as a foundation on which to build a syllabus, whose objective is to create awareness and provide concrete tools that can become habits; (2) that it provides a self-examination reference tool for those in a leadership role to use; and (3) that it becomes the basis of a permanent initiative, thinking about the design of support teams that can support the leaders at each stage of their career.

All these issues feed and complement each other and offer different ways to help leaders be more connected with their humanity and with their emotions and, thus, be more effective in their role and more sustainable in the long term.

• The Emotional Side: Mental Health

It is essential to work on self-awareness, mental health care, connection with emotions, and psychological support in an activity as demanding as politics. Without this work, the chances of being a healthy and sustainable person after many years in leadership tasks are almost nil. Exhaustion and burnout, depression, panic attacks, or more complex disorders haunt anyone who is exposed to so much stress.

Interestingly, though the way power sickens has been studied throughout history, there are not many cases of political leaders who have recognized that they suffer or suffered from mental health problems. This is an anachronism in a time where there is a growing awareness of the importance of mental health among the general population and where it is no longer a taboo, but something that everyone must take care of.

But beyond the possible diseases or disorders that a politician can live with, it is necessary to work on self-awareness to understand those things that impacted, shaped, and conditioned their lives.

According to Alberto Lederman, an Argentine business management expert: “All leaders have some trauma. I don’t know one that doesn’t. My theory, in short, is that lust for power is a trauma response. Because, just as not everyone needs to get high, not everyone is interested in power. You must have a biographical trauma to do certain things. You must have motive, compelling reasons to aspire to power, to want to make history, to seek prominence. If there is no conflict, there are no demands for redress.”

As discussed before, preventing the effects of Hubris Syndrome is key, and for that, awareness and professional help are required. Working with a mental health professional is a basic necessity for someone who is in a context of permanent stress.

In addition, there are other factors to consider, such as the impact of stress on our capacity for emotional bonding. Aggravated by permanent conflict, exposure, and personal attacks, the mind acts in self-defense by closing itself off. This decreases empathy just when it is needed most—when one is exercising a political leadership role in a government or in some other political office.

There is also abundant evidence on the usefulness of meditation as a practice that helps in self-knowledge, connection with the present, mental health, and reduction of stress and anxiety, among many other benefits.

Neuroscience has advanced in recent decades, and it can provide us with important self-awareness tools to know how our brain works, how it interacts with the rest of our body, and how it is affected by the stress context in which we move.

The spiritual and religious dimension also constitutes an important element to consider. It is important to understand how it shapes our beliefs and values, our thought process, our self-knowledge practices, and our relationship with transcendence. Although it is a more private dimension, omitting it from the analysis implies leaving out a dimension that occupies an important part of people’s lives.

• The Body: High Performance

It is known that the body needs to breathe, sleep, eat, and train in order to perform at its best. However, most of us don’t know how to do these things well, and what we do know is often put aside in times of high demand.

The case of political leaders is more dramatic, as Pepe Sánchez— former NBA basketball player and Olympic medalist, who is today dedicated to thinking about well-being and high performance—says, “The human body is not prepared to make so many decisions and be in a context of persistent stress.” 1

There is even the myth that the best politician is the one who sacrifices himself by sleeping little and eating poorly for the well-being of the people. It goes along the same lines that a good leader is one who totally neglects himself—even a premature death consecrates him in his sacrifice for the people.

The view of political leaders taking care of their bodies becomes even more necessary when you consider that the athlete has a career limited by age, but the political leader has a much longer career. There is enormous opportunity for improvement in strengthening the entire training system, as the political experience is a longer one and therefore provides more time for learning and training. Today, we can learn from the many experiences of high-performance athletes who have prolonged their competitive lives.

Sánchez explains:

In sports we not only compete against rivals, but we also compete with stressors. My experience was that once I achieved all my sporting goals, I felt a great void. The big question is why am I doing this? You block your emotions and your vulnerability. And that happens to many high achievers, from different disciplines. They also block what happens in their bodies and their emotions; they only rely on their brain. We must train them to take a more comprehensive look at themselves. In addition, every leader should have a toolbox that includes breathing techniques, daily movement, rehydration, how to eat out, and the subject of sleep. 2

Technology today has made it more accessible than ever to have permanent measuring instruments that keep us in touch with our physical performance. Even so, it is interesting to think that it is not only about leaders doing physical activity occasionally, but also about understanding that they must be in their best shape for what is an activity of enormous physical exhaustion. Relying on professionals for support in this process is also key, because as with the mental and emotional elements, self-sufficiency can lead us to want to solve it ourselves.

The support of doctors, nutritionists, physical trainers, kinesiologists, and other specialties is important if one wants to avoid voluntarism and wants to take advantage of scientific knowledge and advances that continue to develop.

This is a subject that knows no age, gender, or physical condition limits. We all have a body, and it needs to be at its best to be effective in leadership.

• Expression: Presence and Communication

Politicians often receive specific training on expression or rhetorical techniques for going up on stage to give a speech or going on a television interview. This is based on the premise that a leader goes on stage a few times a day or a week, and then “turns off” the communication mode to continue with their rational tasks. But today, the political leader is in permanent communication mode—always exposed—and for that, he needs to prepare differently.

We can learn a lot about the emotional dimension of communication from the knowledge that has developed in the artistic world. Isabelle Anderson, a specialist in training leaders in performance, says: “You have to acquire skills to handle your expressions and your body. Many just imitate what they think is right since they did not receive any tools. This generates something disingenuous that threatens connection.” 3 It is also known that a large part of communication is transmitted through vocal and physical expression, not just words.

Anderson continues:

By analyzing human behavior, I understood that authentic presence is what resonates with any audience. But presence needs energy to reach that audience. We must teach leaders that we communicate not only with words but with the energy of presence, and this can be trained. The problem is that many people climb up the ladder without the proper training and mental preparation to communicate; so, they end up appearing either contracted and less than their best selves, or imitating others and seeming fake. All this sadly prevents sincere, authentic communication. 4

This approach envisions that there must be an alignment between what one is, what one does, and what one says. It is no use thinking that one can dissociate and act out a character with the level of exposure we see today. This also requires training techniques practiced daily, as is done in physical training.

• Back to Nature: Rewilding

The day-to-day life of contemporary leaders takes place in an urban context, generally within government buildings or offices; while traveling by car, helicopter, or airplane; in brief outdoor activities; or in event rooms—in most contexts, often surrounded by security agents.

This greatly limits the contact leaders can have with nature, and therefore the connection with their own natural dimension. As much as we forget, human beings are part of the animal kingdom, and we need to be in contact with nature.

Nature helps a leader in many ways: contact with animals boosts empathy, spending time in nature gives us perspective and makes us humbler, and it connects us with something greater than ourselves.

Tomás Ceppi, a high mountain guide, says: “You don’t get the sense of security that nature gives you anywhere else. It is a pure and transparent relationship.” 5 This interesting mountaineering metaphor can teach us a lot about leadership—from the need to have a guide who has already made the journey and can help us through it, to the extreme teamwork in which your life depends on what your partner does, to the need to prepare yourself in lower experiences before climbing high peaks, to the challenge of going down once you have reached the top, among many others. Ceppi also highlights the need to understand what your motivation is when facing such a challenge.

Everyone can find the way they best like to connect with nature. Some will choose to garden or raise pets; others will seek to climb Aconcagua’s summit or other extreme adventures. In between, there are endless options. But the important thing is to be able to reflect on the need to have systematic contact with nature, not only as a place to relax or to take vacations, but also as a place to develop empathy, humility, and perspective.

• The Avatar: Managing Character and Fame

Being famous does not come naturally and generates various impacts one should try to prepare for. The separation between the person and the character one projects is one of the greatest challenges that someone faces when they become well known. How you handle that separation will depend a lot on how you can handle criticism and attacks, but also praise and idolatry.

The more national the figure one projects, the more their experience resembles that of the most well-known celebrities, be they artists, athletes, or other popular figures. However, there is little awareness that success in political activity will lead you to become famous, and that being famous will come with loss of freedom, impact on families and your inner circle, and constant stress caused by being seen by others.

Studying and learning about the experiences of non-political personalities who have gone through the phenomenon of fame can help to manage this situation and help when processing the emotional, psychological, and practical impact that fame brings. From this point, strategies can be learned to remain in touch with reality, such as preserving intimate spaces at times when it seems necessary to open it all up all the time, as well as working with children and family to help them manage the exposure, among many other necessary tools to manage fame’s impact.

• Connecting to Our Virtual World: Digital Nutrition

As Pablo Boczkowski explains in his book, Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Plenty , living in an era with an abundance of content is a challenge that generates stress and conditions our lives, especially due to the impact generated by the use of the smartphone as a kind of prosthesis of our body.

Using a nutrition analogy and our body’s diet, the cell phone is today a portal to our digital life. This digital being coexists with our biological being, but the difference is that since it is a much more recent phenomenon, how its use impacts individuals has not been studied in depth.

What we digitally consume on our cell phones (or through other screens), both in quantity and quality, affects us mentally and emotionally. Given the addictive nature of digital platforms, we are very exposed to consuming a poor-quality digital diet, investing hours of the day on them.

Social networks and digital newspapers are our main source of information, and there are no curators to help us define criteria for use.

WhatsApp and other digital messaging services put us in a state of permanent demand and force us to be connected to the screen, receiving notifications from different hierarchies all the time and participating in multiple conversations even while we are physically together. In addition, it allows direct and unlimited contact with a huge number of people who expect contact without intermediaries and without delay. Before, you could send letters to a political leader, then emails, but always with a waiting period and a possible filter, which made the demands easier to manage for the leaders. Not anymore in today’s world.

The abundance of content generates another stressor for us since we have to choose from an infinite pool of worldwide content without necessarily having clear criteria.

When in a senior leadership position, this problem can become dramatic since it is entirely up to the leader how he will use his cell phone. Often, it can end up working as an antianxiety agent, and thus end up enhancing disconnection and stress.

• Perspective: Widening the Gaze

The human brain uses sight as a reference to manage vital functions. When our visual field is reduced, the alert mode is activated because our ability to detect threats is reduced. On the contrary, when the visual field is widened, our breathing and heart rate decrease due to a decrease in danger.

In terms of our day-to-day life, if we are constantly focused on the very short term, or on the hyper-local 20 centimeters that separate us from our screen, that lack of perspective becomes a permanent stressor and our thinking skills are dulled.

Visual perspective can be trained, but it can also be worked on from the content we consume through different dimensions.

One dimension has to do with looking at other realities; seeing what is happening in other countries; ideally traveling, but if not, at least consuming content that shows us we can find solutions to problems that we think are exclusively our own, but that exist everywhere; and reading about global perspectives. These are all ways of broadening our strictly local perspective.

Timewise, both history and the future broaden our horizon and give us perspective. History, because it connects us with human nature, the challenges of power that transcend the ages, the repetition of phenomena, and the overcoming of problems. The future, because it determines the horizon. It shows us those phenomena that are to come, those that are transforming society and life, and the problems we will face that have not yet been solved.

A second dimension has to do with the issues and disciplines outside of our familiar scope. We are in a world of specialization, and it usually generates microclimates that prevent us from seeing other realities occurring in parallel to our own.

A third dimension has to do with the different social and generational realities. The fragmentation of our public conversation makes it difficult to see social situations that are out of our reach due to a generational, social, or geographic issue.

All these dimensions are ways of taking perspective, but it is very important to have a permanent discipline to be in contact with them, because our natural tendency will always be to return to our microclimate.

• The Collective: Teams, Coaches, Bands, and Orchestras

A team is the most effective way to contain egos and put them to work according to a common goal. One of the sports coaches who has developed the most concepts about teamwork, Phil Jackson, says that “good teams become great teams when their members are willing to sacrifice the ‘me’ for the ‘us’.” However, this illustration is rarely used in politics, or it is used as an expression of desire or a rhetorical device.

We can not only learn from the sports world, but also from the artistic world, where both orchestras and music groups of different genres are examples of shared work experiences in which individuals merge to achieve a common sound.

In both groupings, there is leadership and there is a support structure. They are not always successful, but almost always when they are not, it is because there isn’t an appropriate distribution of responsibilities and revenues.

A grouping will be healthy, as Jackson says, when all the parts are integrated into a whole, without losing individuality, but agreeing on a common identity and functioning.

The role of the coach or conductor has also changed over time. Today, we are beginning to understand that the vertical and authoritarian role of years past is no longer effective, and that it no longer connects with the new generations that demand a closer, horizontal, and personalized bond.

Teams also show us counterexamples, where egos and individualities tolerate each other, but clearly convey that there is no such sense of shared belonging. The similarities with the realities of political forces are very clear when viewed from this lens.

In sports, the coach plays an important role, as does the producer with artists. The role of political advisers may come to mind in association with politics, but it is not the same. Politicians’ advisers and personal staff concentrate on matters related to strategies, public policies, communication, or management, among other topics. But it is not their task to deal with the leader in his personal dimension.

• Sustainable Strategies: Think about Promotions and Demotions, Long Term

Many political careers are thought of in terms of how to move up in the hierarchical power structure, many with the ultimate dream of occupying the presidency of their country. The problem with this strategy is that what is thought of as a linear path is in fact more like a mountainous path, with hills and valleys, but above all, with great uncertainty regarding what may happen in the future.

When organizing ourselves once we arrive at the next position or we reach the highest position that we want to occupy, we lack a sustainable strategy to make a significant contribution in our lifetime. The most descriptive example of this happens with former young presidents, who finish their term and face the emptiness of not knowing what else to do and the “Chinese vase syndrome” that makes you feel that you do not know where to place yourself. On the other hand, it also happens with politicians who never retire, fighting until the end of their lives for the leading role, thus blocking the path for new generations.

Another common problem is the vacuum generated by the loss of power after having held an important position, not only in terms of adrenaline, but also sometimes in terms of economic sustainability. There is a clear risk of depression, especially if that person does not work on himself or receive adequate support.

The exercise of thinking about a leadership career in a different way from that of the classic ascension on the ladder of power helps us visualize the importance of having a shatterproof strategy, of taking care of oneself more, and of keeping perspective—so as not to go blind into a career without knowing the next steps, or so as not to become dependent on structures that end up squelching our enthusiasm, leaving us wondering why we do what we do.

Thinking of a career plan also helps us to think about a diversity of experiences and objectives, alternating periods of greater power with others of greater personal development. And it also helps every seasoned leader think that part of his task is to mentor new generations. This is something else to do after a political career besides getting caught up in the logic of the ego or the sense of irrelevance that can come with the loss of power. It is in people with experience that we can find future coaches of emerging leaders, thus ensuring the intergenerational handoff that we lack today.

Ideally, this would be part of the task of political institutions—mainly political parties—but for that, clarity is needed from their own leaders as to the need to invest time and resources in their seedbeds in a professional way.

This paper seeks to make an effective contribution to how we think about democratic political leadership and also to share personal insight as a politician so that other politicians and leaders can use it as a reference and think about how much they are taking care of themselves. Doing so can contribute to finding solutions for the legitimacy crisis that our democracies are experiencing due to a disconnect with social expectations and demands. This paradigm shift is already occurring in other fields of society, and taking it to the political arena will make the task of those in charge of solving the great problems we face more effective.

Leadership should be more human, more collaborative, more group oriented, more connected with emotions, and humbler in order to be effective. For leadership to be more effective, we should create professional structures dedicated to training, supporting, and caring for political leaders. Although it seems incredible, today there is nothing resembling such a professional structure. Political party crisis left that role vacant. We also lack full awareness of the extremely high physical, mental, and emotional demands that political activity has. Undoubtedly, it is an activity that can be thought of in relation to other high-performance activities, such as those of elite athletes. At the same time, handling fame and the demand to constantly communicate brings leaders closer to the lifestyle of the most popular artists. This reflection can also be useful for anyone who plays a leadership role in society, even if they are not engaged in politics.

Thinking about the human dimension of political leadership changes the perspective on what it means to be a leader today. It requires new insight on how this new leadership is built, how it is sustained, and how it is supported. It leads us to analyze the opportunities our democracies have to overcome their crises.

We also should rethink what tools leaders need and how to have more enduring strategies for the development of human capital. If the rest of human activities have advanced scientifically and technologically in terms of both personal care and training for high performance, we can learn a lot from them and enrich the traditional toolbox of values, integrity, ideas, and management skills.

Marcos Pe ña is an independent consultant with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

This report is made possible through general support to the Americas Program.

This report is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

© 2021 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

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Comparative Political Leadership pp 1–24 Cite as

Introduction: The Importance of Studying Political Leadership Comparatively

• Ludger Helms  

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership series ((PSPL))

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.

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Helms, L. (2012). Introduction: The Importance of Studying Political Leadership Comparatively. In: Helms, L. (eds) Comparative Political Leadership. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137264916_1

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How to Write an Essay about a Political Leader

The simplest political systems are found in tribes. Tribal societies do not seem to have political leaders in the sense that we expect to see in the 21 century. But still, political power is peculiar either to ancient or modern times. It is represented by such outstanding political leaders as Julius Caesar, King Arthur, Napoleon Bonaparte, Otto von Bismarck, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Elizabeth II, Barack Obama and many others who have taken up the duty to govern a tribe, city, state, region or even an entire nation.

And now, you need to write an essay about a political leader, for example, who inspires you or who you consider as the most powerful in the world. Do we guess right? So if you are here now, it is true. And we’re ready to help with writing this particular essay – what to include and in what order. Let’s find out together!

Table of Contents

Political Leadership over the Early Years

Our modern civilization is indebted to the people of ancient Greece and Rome. Know why? Despite the fact that these societies made considerable contributions to the fields like art, literature, philosophy , the greatest gift to future generations was the modern perception of government. Today’s idea of democracy is grounded by the political struggles in the city of Athens. Know that the citizens of Athens managed to have equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena in the 5th to 4th century BCE? And now, you can use this fact in your essay speaking about the Athenian democracy .

In The Roman Republic , different forms of governance started appearing – from monarchies and oligarchies to militaristic societies and proto-democracies. This way, a republic as a new form of government has been copied by many countries for centuries – Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Dutch Republic, Swiss Confederation, Cuba, Republic of China, Russian Republic, etc. For example, the government of the USA is based partly on Rome’s model. Most are sure that America now looks like Rome before the fall of the Republic .

All that information means that there was a necessity to have a leader to govern. Aristotle describes the role of politics and the political community in his book, Politics . In his opinion, politics is supposed to bring about the virtuous life in the citizenry . Additionally, it is better to get familiar with this work of political philosophy in more detail. Today, views on political leadership are ambiguous than ever. On the one hand, two world wars put a deep mistrust of political leaders. On the other hand, the complexity of modern society causes a demand for effective political leaders. Let’s describe them below.

Who Are They, These Political Leaders, Today?

When thinking about people in the position of political power, one tends to think of them as representatives of some other breed of human beings. After all, they’ve managed to rise so high and keep their positions, they have to deal with unimaginable problems on a daily basis, they decide the fate of millions of people and, by extension, of the world in general. Surely they cannot be the same as common men, right? Yes and no.

On the one hand, contrary to popular belief, political leaders aren’t necessarily more intelligent than the majority of so-called ‘common men’ – or rather, they possess some other kind of intelligence, different from what is conventionally meant by this word. This intelligence helps them rise up high, intuitively understand how to deal with people and prevail over opposition; it doesn’t necessarily help them in dealing with any other problems.

Come to think of it, it is hard to understand where people get the idea that personalities in the positions of power are in any way special and better suited to making important decisions. Anybody with at least a passing acquaintance with history and awareness of current events sees that typical political leaders regularly make decisions that are nothing short of idiotic – not in hindsight, but right from the get-go. The only thing one needs to be a successful politician is to be likable. And in order to be likable, one doesn’t have to possess either knowledge or intelligence. In fact, history knows many political leaders who were able to inspire loyalty and sympathy while being complete ciphers as individuals.

What we all should understand is that a typical and even a good political leader isn’t the same as a good human being. In fact, to believe that a politician you back is a good person is almost morbidly optimistic as history tells us quite explicitly: percentage of decent human beings in politics, irrespectively of a nation, epoch, and system of government is infinitesimally negligible, with the chance of one getting into a position of true power being even less probable.

There is no such thing as good or bad political leaders. There are only those that are bad and those that are even worse. Therefore, the choice between different political leaders is not a choice between good or evil, right or wrong – it is the choice between a greater and a lesser evil. It is exactly what we all should understand when dealing with different people promoting different agendas. A typical politician cannot be trusted by definition – politics is an art of influencing people , and one cannot influence people being good and honest all the time.

Of course, all political leaders want us to perceive them as honest, compassionate and consistent people whose only goal in life is to help us improve our lives. Reality is, of course, different. A typical political leader pursues his or her own goals; an atypical leader is very unlikely to rise high enough to matter.

5 Essay Writing Steps

Now, you know what to write about in the essay “Political Leaders”. It is time to know how to write an essay on the same topic step by step.

• Prepare an outline of your ideas on the topic. Your thoughts must be well-organized in an essay. An outline allows to do it. Don’t rush into writing an essay immediately after sitting at a desk. List all your main ideas leaving space under each one so that you will be able to add some subpoints.
• Write a thesis statement. After you collect all the ideas for an essay, proceed with writing the main idea of your essay. Usually, a thesis statement has two parts – the topic itself and the main point of the essay. For instance, imagine you are writing about George Washington and his impact on the United States. Your thesis statement will lool, “George Washington has influenced the future of our country while being the first American president.”
• Develop the body of your essay. If you think we are wrong providing this tip after creating a thesis statement, be sure it is an effective step to write an essay. When the main part of your essay is prepared, it is much easier to come up with the logically complete introduction and conclusion. Reveal all the main points in the body with all the relevant subpoint, details and examples.
• Introduce the topic of your essay briefly. Based on the written thesis statement, you can broaden the first part of the essay – an introduction. Just add several sentences and voila you are coming to the end of writing.
• Conclude the essay logically. After your essay consists of the introduction and body, something is missed. This part is called ‘conclusion’ where you sum up all the above mentioned in a logical way – what is presented and why.

Hopefully, the writing process in the essay “A Political Leader” is simplified by our step-by-step guide. If no, you are welcome to our service where you’ll find an experienced writer of any essay you are struggling with now or have no time to struggle with.

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Regions & Countries

1. politicians, changing leadership and political parties.

In the vast majority of the 24 countries surveyed, politicians are the most common subject of proposals to improve democracy. Some call for different types of people to enter the political arena, while others simply want their current politicians to perform better. Many want their leaders to pay closer attention to and respond more appropriately to constituents’ needs.

“The members of the legislature are stupid, so I want them to improve.” Woman, 20, Japan

While not top of mind in most places, people sometimes argue for a total change in leadership . This includes removing incumbent heads of state and instating a preferred politician. In Poland, where the survey took place before the October election which removed the then-ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) , this was the top change people thought would improve democracy.

Respondents also look beyond the people in politics to focus on political parties . This issue is particularly salient in the Netherlands, where parties are the second-most mentioned topic, though they rank in the top five in South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the U.S. Many requests center on changing the number of political parties – some want more and some want fewer. Others want to see a change in how parties interact, with calls for less fighting and more cooperation. A number of these responses specifically address the behavior or strength of the opposition party.

Politicians

In nearly all countries surveyed, politicians rank first among the 17 topics coded. In countries where politicians are not the top issue, they still rank in the top five.

Suggestions for improving democracy by way of politicians come in many forms.

Some would like to see different people in politics, or more representation . Others focus on the qualities of politicians, such as honesty or empathy, but also their skillset and general competence . Still others ask that politicians change their behavior, both when working with each other and when working with constituents, emphasizing responsiveness .

Representation: Changing who is in politics

“If politicians were ordinary people who were on public transport, who used the means and the laws that they later apply.” Woman, 41, Spain

One group of suggestions involves changing the types of people involved in politics . For some, politicians are too dissimilar from their constituents, and “ordinary citizens should be able to enter” the government instead. As one Australian woman explained: “If ordinary people were elected to Parliament instead of big, official people, our country would probably be a better place to live. Ordinary people know how hard it is to get jobs, live below the poverty line and raise families on the low sums that the Australian government allows Centrelink to pay out each fortnight.” Another man in Nigeria put it more plainly: “They should give somebody like me a chance of ruling in Nigeria.”

“Wealthy people in government are not helpful in democracy because they don’t understand what it’s like to work in unionized jobs and not be able to afford necessities.” Woman, 41, UK

Some people focus specifically on the wealth of political leaders , calling for “fewer rich wealthy people” in the government. In Nigeria, one woman said, “They should allow the poor people to rule.” A man in Argentina said there should be “more poor people who can reach important positions.” And one Canadian man suggested “having more people from the upper-middle class, or people who have to work and earn their income, know what it’s like to pay taxes, and understand how difficult it is to survive in our world.”

Others say that “youth should take part in politics.” Younger politicians are viewed as a conduit for change and new ideas while “old ones don’t care anymore.” As one woman in South Africa pointed out, the “youth are the ones who are in line with the community issues.” Many respondents think younger people should be more involved in politics for their own sake: “Young people must create their own future.” A 30-year-old Argentine man said, “Let the young people get involved in politics, as they are the future and will change the country.” And respondents sometimes emphasize that younger people need to be prepared before entering politics, as one man in India said: “Youth should take part in politics, and training the leaders is the solution.”

“We want young blood or women to take over as our government.” Man, 34, South Africa

More women entering politics is another suggestion for improving the functioning of democracy. One woman in Sweden said, “More women in power, and then I think we will have a good political system.” A Japanese man echoed this call, saying one way to improve democracy is “to increase women’s participation in politics by making more than half of the members of Parliament women.” And a man in Spain said, “Simply, in this country, if instead of men there were more women in power, the country would do so much better.”

Still others call for people of different racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds to be in politics. One man in South Africa asked for “a better balance of races in Parliament,” and a woman in Brazil proposed “racial quotas for politicians.” In the Netherlands, one woman suggested more representation of different “cultures, diaspora groups, origins and backgrounds. Because if you look at photos of the cabinet, you see a whole group of White people, which is not objective when you talk about the different cultures and backgrounds in the Netherlands.”

Specific backgrounds come up in some responses. In Australia, one man highlighted how “Indigenous people need to have more say in government,” and a woman in the U.S. shared a similar sentiment, saying, “As a matter of fact, this is Native land, and us Natives should be in charge, not other races.” An Israeli man proposed “more Arab Knesset members so they have more influence on decisions.” Kenya sees similar calls for “leaders from all tribes” to be elected, and a man in India requested that members of Parliament “be from all the castes.”

Competence: Changing politicians’ qualities

“Political leaders should be improved.” Man, 61, South Korea

Many suggest improving the overall quality of politicians . “If the leader is good, there will be improvement,” explained one man in India. These calls are often straightforward, as in the case of a Mexican woman whose singular request was for “better politicians.” Some suggest basic requirements for holding political office, like one man in Japan who said, “We need politicians who have common sense and can think logically.” This sentiment is shared in Kenya, where one respondent suggested that democracy would be improved if “competent leaders” were elected.

Politicians need extroversion, knowledge and experience from foreign countries, integrity and a democratic spirit.” Man, 49, Greece

In some cases, respondents set even higher bars for their politicians, specifically asking that they be “knowledgeable people” or “experts on key policy issues.” One Hungarian woman explained that “experts would pass responsible laws.” For one woman in Spain, the coronavirus pandemic illustrated the importance of having experts on an issue decide “everything that has to do with that issue. For example, during COVID, the people who decided were a doctor and an expert.” Others are more reluctant to have experts govern outright and would just like politicians to listen more to experts or have more advisers.

People also want to see changes in the personal character of politicians:

“It will improve when we get a strong and determined leader who puts the issues and problems of people first.”

– Man, 36, South Africa

“More decisiveness from the politicians. I think it’s weak now; they don’t dare to make decisions and they are like civil servants.”

– Woman, 66, Netherlands

“All political people are very bad. All political persons should be honest.”

– Man, 32, India

“To have trustworthy and honest authorities who can give an account of what they do and where they do their jobs.”

– Man, 67, Mexico

“I think they need to behave less like children, learn what people want and be less self-interested. And learn how to tell the truth. And not avoid answering questions.”

– Woman, 76, UK

“For politicians to stop going for a win for their party and egos, and instead to focus more on what’s best – for the short and long term – for the country.”

– Man, 65, U.S.

Responsiveness: Changing politicians’ behavior

Politicians’ conduct is another subject of people’s suggestions. They want politicians to take their responsibilities more seriously and show “more interest in the work they are asked to do.” In Australia, one woman wanted “fewer ‘charismatic’ leaders and more serious and committed candidates.” Another Australian thought politicians need to have a greater sense of responsibility because “saying ‘I don’t know’ or ‘it isn’t my responsibility’ loses the respect of the electorate.” One man in the U.S. plainly stated that democracy needs “serious elected officials, not crazy ones like you have now in the GOP.”

Others are concerned about making sure politicians “say what they mean and do what they say,” especially when it comes to keeping promises made during campaigns . One man in France said politicians must “avoid saying things that will never be done, lying just to get elected.” In Sweden, a respondent asked for “less fishing for votes with false promises.” In several cases, people specifically called for repercussions “if election promises are not carried out.” One man in Australia suggested that politicians “should be forced to stand down” if they do not “honor their promises.” The sentiment is shared in Japan, where one man said that “those who have not worked to carry out their campaign promises” should be prevented “from running for the next term.”

“The government should listen to the voice of the people, because the voice in the inside is not the voice of the lower level. People’s complaints in the lower level are seldom taken.” Woman, 39, Indonesia

One oft-repeated request is for politicians to listen more closely to their constituents . Many feel that democracy “is not working because politicians have their own agenda and are not listening to anybody.” In the Netherlands, one man explained that “the ordinary man in the street is not really listened to” and “not much” comes of what they ask for. People instead call for politicians to “pay attention to what facilities the people are not getting” and understand that they are meant to be “pro-people.” One Kenyan man said democracy would improve “if elected leaders represented people as the people want and represent the problems they are facing.”

People also highlight specific groups in the country that politicians should pay special attention to . In Japan, several said politicians need to “hear more women’s opinions” and be more attentive to the needs of young people. In other instances, people want politicians to hear “more opinions from poor people.” One Israeli respondent emphasized “taking the opinions of Arabs into consideration,” and a woman in Brazil stressed the need for politicians to better understand “the homeless people.” Other groups that are highlighted include the elderly, LGBTQ people, religious groups and refugees. (For more on what people said about individual rights and equality, read Chapter 4 .)

Still, some think that politicians need to “place less emphasis on the wants of minority groups.” In Australia, some painted these groups as “noisy” or “loud” and said politicians should listen to the “silent majority” instead. Other respondents in both Australia and the U.S. even name specific groups they think are receiving undue attention, such as “Aboriginal people,” women and “illegal immigrants.”

Changing leadership

Instead of improving the quality of their politicians, some want to remove the current governing parties or heads of state . This issue appeared in the top five topics cited in Poland, Hungary and South Africa. In most other countries surveyed, though, it does not rank in the top 10.

In about half the countries surveyed, those who do not support the governing party or parties are more likely to mention changing their political leadership than those who do support these parties. (For more information on how we classify governing party supporters, refer to Appendix D .)

In Hungary, for example, where changing leadership is the third-most mentioned suggestion for improving democracy, 12% of those who do not support Viktor Orbán’s governing coalition of Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KNDP) mention changing leadership, compared with 1% of those who do support these parties.

Calls to put someone else in power, particularly in Poland

Across the 24 countries surveyed, Poles particularly stand out for the emphasis they placed on changing leadership – Poland is the only country where the issue ranked first. The survey was conducted in spring 2023, prior to the October 2023 parliamentary elections that ousted the governing right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) .

“As long as PiS is in power, there will be no democracy in Poland.” Man, 24, Poland

Polish responses about how to improve their democracy centered squarely on changing the governing party: “Removing PiS from power,” said one Polish man. “PiS should lose the election,” echoed a Polish woman.

Poles who do not support PiS are more likely to mention changing leadership than those who do support PiS (17% vs. 4%, respectively, though PiS supporters were overall less likely to provide a response). Younger Polish adults are also more likely to mention changing leadership than those ages 40 and older. Indeed, in the October election, turnout among the youth was unusually high .

While Poles focused on removing the particular party in power, people in other countries sometimes emphasize the need to put different people or parties into office . “The government should be changed. The Congress Party government should come to power,” said one man in India. “Raila Odinga should be granted leadership,” said a woman in Kenya, naming the leader of the opposition. And a South African man suggested that “the African National Congress give other parties a chance to govern the country, and Cyril Ramaphosa step down as a president.”

“A change of government at the next election would improve democracy. The Conservatives have been in power for too long.” Woman, 53, UK

In other countries, too, calls to change leadership prioritize removing someone currently in power as opposed to installing someone else. Some respondents name the current head of state as who they would like to see out of office. One Brazilian man said, for example, “Get President Lula and his gang out of power.” Or, as one woman in Canada put it: “If we could get Justin Trudeau out of leadership, then I would be happier with democracy.”

Rebuilding leadership from the ground up

“The legislature has a lot of problems – it needs to be improved, starting with a new election of lawmakers.” Man, 65, South Korea

Some requests to change leadership are not specific to a person or party, but rather focus on bringing in a fresh slate of politicians . “Fire everyone and start fresh,” said one woman in the U.S. An Argentine woman echoed this view: “Take out the current politicians, reform and formulate new laws, and start from scratch.”

Several of these calls to rebuild target the legislature. A man in Greece said, “all 300 members should leave the Parliament. The structure of the Parliament should change radically.” A woman in Spain suggested, “I would carry out a purge in the useless Senate.”

“The established order must be replaced: a new generation with more women and people from the business world. There are too many people who have only been in politics. That is an unhealthy situation.” Woman, 53, Netherlands

A few focus less on a specific leader, party or institution and more generally on the need for change. One Italian man said, “In order to improve democracy in this country, it would take a coup d’etat. We need to reset all privileges and start over in full respect of people.”

Political parties

People sometimes target political parties when making suggestions for improving democracy. The issue is particularly salient in the Netherlands, where parties are the second-most mentioned topic. Parties are a top-five issue in Spain, Sweden, South Korea and the U.S. In most other countries surveyed, parties rank in the top 10.

Some proposed changes relate to the number of political parties. Other suggestions are related to how parties act, both on their own and with other parties.

“Get rid of all the political parties, we need a redo.” Woman, 39, Canada

More political parties

Some want to see more political parties, as with a respondent in Kenya who wanted “the use of a multiparty system” and one in Greece who thought “more political parties in the Parliament” would improve democracy.

Some express a simple desire for more options to choose from . For example, a man in Canada found “very little difference between the NDP (New Democratic Party) and Liberal” now that the Liberal Party, which “used to be centralist,” has “moved to the left.” In South Korea, also dominated by two parties, a man said having “at least three parties to contest the elections” would help improve the country’s democracy. Similarly, one woman in the U.S. wanted “more parties, more points of view.”

“That no large coalitions exist and we therefore have more than three parties.” Woman, 57, Germany

In other cases, people see the existing parties as too polarized and want additional parties to represent centrists . A man in the U.S. said, “There truly needs to be a relevant third party that would represent the middle-of-the-road ideology between Republicans and Democrats.” This sentiment is echoed in Australia, where one woman thought democracy “works well, but it’s the party room that buggers it up.” This would be fixed if the “extreme wings” of parties became “parties of their own as most people vote for a moderate view,” she said.

Some see the creation of more parties as an opportunity to introduce new ideas . A British man said democracy would improve “if some new parties came to the United Kingdom with some fresh blood and fresh ideas, instead of the same people. The old parties are not so interested in the people living in the UK. They only care about their own pockets and their own ideas.” Suggestions for new parties sometimes focus on the inclusion of young people as a way to bring about different ideas. One Greek woman emphasized that “political parties should be created by young people with new ideas.”

Fewer political parties

Some suggest reducing the number of political parties would create more simplicity . In Nigeria, one man said that “with too many parties, things will go wrong.” A Canadian man held a similar view, saying, “the number of parties should be limited to three: left, center and right. I believe it would lead to less chaos.”

In Mexico, some highlight the monetary cost of having a large number of parties : “There should be fewer parties so that the payroll is less expensive,” said one Mexican woman. Another man thought there should only be two political parties because the current number of parties results in “a lot of money spent.”

“Fewer parties. No party has a clear policy. It’s just a moderate Swedish soup. And if someone tries to stand out, they never succeed.” Woman, 52, Sweden

People in the Netherlands, where political parties are the second-most mentioned issue, also note how “democracy is being muddled by smaller parties.” One woman explained: “I think it is too fragmented, therefore more difficult to form coalitions, and therefore more difficult to govern.” Another woman called for “fewer political parties. Otherwise you will become entirely ungovernable because many compromises have to be made. Too many parties leads to uncertainty among voters.”

There is no clear consensus on the ideal number of political parties to have in a country . For example, in the Netherlands, one man suggested that there “be seven to eight parties at most” while another suggested “a three-party system.” Still others want no parties at all, as in the case of a man in Japan: “Dissolution of all political parties. We will create a system in which even members of Parliament are not bound by political parties and are involved in politics based on their individual ideas.”

“By creating a two-party system like America’s. Then they can better keep the promises made.” Man, 40, Netherlands

Although some Americans would like to see more parties or a multiparty system, people in other countries sometimes point to the two-party system in the U.S. as ideal . An Italian man said, “We should have a democratic system like the American one: a presidential system, two parties that you can identify with. In Italy, there are too many parties. In America everything is perfect, but in Italy it is not possible.” A Japanese man suggested that “it would be better to have two major political parties like America. Now, there are various small political parties, and they are not united.”

Less conflict between parties

“Stop the constant opposition policies, like when a party is in favor of one thing, the rival party has to be against it.” Man, 19, Spain

Many think democracy would improve if political parties stopped fighting with each other . A French man explained that parties “spend their time fighting among themselves. It is not favorable for the French. They discuss and don’t make any real progress on the subjects.” In neighboring Italy, one man similarly took issue with “party squabbling,” and in Spain, a respondent wanted a “decrease in aggressiveness and hostility between parties.” This sentiment is echoed across other countries, including South Africa, where a man asked that “parties stop degrading each other.”

“If the Republicans and Democrats would just work together this would be the greatest country in the world.” Man, 58, U.S

People give various reasons for their concern about interparty conflict. Some point out how friction between parties creates gridlock : With “two parties fighting and voting along party lines, we never get anything done,” said a man in the U.S. A Canadian man shared a similar idea, saying, “If parties stop bickering, we might advance further.” Others are concerned because “democracy requires mutual efforts while competing,” according to a South Korean man, and because “parties that don’t want to cooperate with others are not democratic,” according to a Dutch man. A Dutch woman succinctly said, “If political parties do not want to work together, a democracy is useless.”

More cooperation between parties

“Get together more, talk more, diversity of opinions. That the parties leave personal benefits aside and agree, more like the Argentine team.” Man, 31, Argentina

Parties are also called upon to work together . As a woman in the U.S. said: “I would like to see both parties work together and not see each other as wrong. Compromise is the name of the game!” This is echoed in South Korea, where one man said that “compromise is necessary.” One South African respondent noted that working together would allow all parties to focus on “reaching one goal and keeping our country peaceful with stability.”

For others, improved communication between parties is the key for greater harmony. An Argentine woman explained that democracy would work better if “the different parties have a dialogue.” And an Israeli respondent similarly asked for “more dialogue and goodwill to bridge the gaps between the various parties.”

Changes to the opposition party

Some specifically request that opposition parties offer less resistance . A respondent in Kenya, for example, asked the opposition to “calm down a little.” In Hungary, some go even further to suggest that the opposition be “done away with” or “stay silent.” A man in South Africa explained that democracy may be better off without any opposition parties because “no one will ever oppose the decisions, which creates stability in the country.”

“Less hyperbole from the Liberal-National Coalition. We need a viable opposition instead of the half-witted reactionaries that the Coalition keeps serving up.” Man, 50, Australia

Other suggestions for opposition parties are more targeted. In Australia, people want opposition parties “to stop opposing things just to score political points” or to stop “voting against a good bill just because they are in opposition.” A Spanish man also spoke out against disagreement for the sake of it: “Don’t assume that the opposition must always say the opposite of what the ruling party says.”

Still, in some countries, the emphasis is reversed, and people want a stronger opposition that “will keep the government in check.” As one man in the UK explained: “I think we need an opposition that genuinely disagrees with the government. There has got to be debate. We have a Parliament and it’s not being used properly.”

Facts are more important than ever

In times of uncertainty, good decisions demand good data. Please support our research with a financial contribution.

Report Materials

Table of contents, freedom, elections, voice: how people in australia and the uk define democracy, global public opinion in an era of democratic anxiety, most people in advanced economies think their own government respects personal freedoms, more people globally see racial, ethnic discrimination as a serious problem in the u.s. than in their own society, citizens in advanced economies want significant changes to their political systems, most popular.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

What it takes to be a Political leader and important qualities of a Good Leader

Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things.

– Peter Drucker

Mark Skousen says, “We shall never change our political leaders until we change the people who elect them.” Hence its important as citizens to elect the right leader who can create transformation.

But surprisingly today’s politicians say, “They are going to do one thing while they intend to do another. Then they do neither what they said nor what they intended.”

What it takes to be a good political leader?

A good political leader is one who is capable to take decisions, determined to work for the betterment, has the willingness to manage & rectify issues and importantly stand up for what is right. A political leader should not be worried about his/her position, power and authority. He should always work for the growth of the society and should value his citizens. Every political leader should inherit the skills and research capabilities to think and act towards future growth. A successful leader, should have five major virtues: Discipline, Trustworthiness, Courage, Humaneness, Intelligence.

Of all the leadership roles, political leaders are always on top of everyone’s mind because they are in the news always for one reason or the other. Around the world there are many aspiring political leaders but unfortunately, there are few leaders who live up to the ethics and principles. 

“The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in Government than in Politics.”

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

To better understand leaders visit

Click here.

In India, most of the political leaders lack the basic and important leadership qualities such as accountability, transparency, availability and integrity. Some of these leaders even indulge in corruption and other illegal activities. In the present generation the word “ political leaders ” has a negative opinion on the citizens, which is not a surprise. However, the present developments show us that the upcoming young leaders are following the leadership ideals. We are seeing some positive changes in Indian politics, which is welcoming.

Having responsible politicians in the governing body is important as they are the decision makers of the country, state and other public affairs. They have the power to manage, distribute the economic resources, build relationships with stakeholders and make decisions that can have a great impact on the well-being of a nation. As a responsible citizens we expect our politicians to focus more on long-term plans for the wellness of the nation than the short-term plans. 

Responsibility is one of the most important leadership qualities. Most political leaders point fingers at other leaders rather than taking the responsibility upon them. Leaders should acknowledge other leaders contribution towards society. They should accept their own faults/ failures /mistakes and should always work towards their betterment.

A leader who is honest, accountable and takes responsibility for his/her own decisions and actions has the quality to become a great leader.

“Not all civil servants admire strong political leadership. But if you want to change things for the better, you need strong political leadership”. – Harriet Harman

Important Qualities of a good political leader:

• He/she must be capable of making tough and brave decisions for better future of public.
• He/she should have the courage to stand up and say what needs to be said rather than just tell what people like.
• He/she should work for people’s well-being rather than fighting for their better political positions.
• He/she must listen to the people and represent them faithfully.
• He/she should be loyal to the people he/she represents. And he/she should be loyal to other leaders so that they can work together and face problems together.
• Regardless of political parties and opinions, one should work with a range of other peoples to achieve the greatest good for the general public.
• He/she should resist themselves from various temptations of the political arena.
• He/she should be humble and down to earth. He/she should consider that he is just a leader and not owner of the people he represents.

Importance of leadership in society:

• Leadership is instrumental for social change. Overcoming social problems or modernizing and abolishing social norms has been impossible without the right kind of leadership.
• Leaders work for goodness of society, respect their people’s voice, creates a positive and happy society, and keep these people motivated and inspired.
• Leadership will emphasize the importance of education, picking the right career, working hard and focusing on performance.
• Some communities and societies are often remembered by their leaders and its exceptional social phenomenon that one leader can’t shape the future of the general public. They make them feel closer to each other and strengthen their bonds.
• Leader has a capable of visualize the people needs from different angles and plan things accordingly. This would enable proper distribution of development and ensure productive results.

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Writing an essay on political leader.

August 7, 2018

Do you want to write an essay on political leader? Do you consider this to be a winning topic for your next paper? Congratulations! You have made the right choice. However, you may be a bit reluctant to write this paper because you don’t know much about politics. Alternatively, you may not be a very good academic writer. Don’t worry about it; most students are neither political experts nor professional academic writers. Yet many of these people manage to write at least an exceptional essay on political leader and get a top grade on it. How do they do it? It’s pretty simple actually. Students need to learn a few cool tips and tricks. Also, we are here to provide a small guide that will help you organize your paper properly and that will also make things a bit easier for you. We know you want to save as much time as possible because you have dozens of other school assignments to work on. So read on to find out how you can write an essay on politician quickly and effectively.

Struggles Faced by Students When Writing an Essay on Political Leader

We briefly touched on the topic of saving time earlier. Let’s expand on this a little so that you understand exactly why you need to learn how to write an essay on politician faster. Students lack time; this is not an assumption, it is a fact. You probably have dozens of academic papers to write each semester. You also have a lot of homework, as well as a lot of supporting material to read for class. It is easy to understand why many students are struggling to get a break and go out with their friends or spend some more time with their family. And in many cases, students may not be native English speakers. Some students even get injured during football practice, which makes writing an essay on politicians almost impossible. So let’s learn how we can do this quickly and how you can get a top grade on your essay about politicians!

Why Write an Essay on Politicians

Let’s start with the beginning: why would you want to write such an academic paper? The reality is that most professors will request it from you. Some teachers really love assigning at least one essay about politicians task to their students each semester. However, you shouldn’t get panicked. Writing one is not as difficult as you think. And did you know that many students actually want to write an essay on political heroes? Yes, some students – especially political science pupils – are into politics. Writing on this topic can earn you some serious bonus points from your teacher. Many students simply avoid the subject, so you will immediately differentiate yourself from the rest of your class. So, should I write a short essay on my favorite political leader? Yes, you should!

Choosing the Politician for Your Paper

The tricky part is choosing the right politician for your academic paper. The rule of thumb is to choose a politician that you admire and that you agree with. Of course, you should know at least some facts about the politician. And it is best to choose someone who has a lot of information written about them online. You want to have an easy time finding ideas and relevant information about the politician you choose. If you are bolder, you can pick a politician whose policies you strongly disagree with. This means that you will have to bring very good arguments to demonstrate that they are wrong and you are right. You can find many political essay examples online to help you out with this difficult task.

Writing a Short Essay on My Favorite Political Leader: A Basic Guide

You want your essay on politician to be interesting and properly written, right? This is why you should follow these simple steps:

• Pick the politician and then find an interesting topic for your academic paper (policies are one of the easiest topics that come to mind).
• Come up with an impressive thesis statement. Don’t be afraid to disagree with your chosen politician!
• The best papers are written using the five paragraph essay structure (intro, 3+ body paragraphs, and conclusion). Master this technique!
• Write the body paragraphs first and ensure that each paragraph discusses a single important idea.
• Write the introduction of the academic paper and then the conclusion. Make these two sections exceptional!
• Proofread, proofread, and then proofread some more. There is nothing professors hate more than typos and trivial mistakes.

Tips and Tricks for a Higher Grade

To help you get an edge over your classmates, we have put together a list of cool tips and interesting ideas for you:

• Find little-known facts about the chosen politician.
• You can talk about love affairs and misconduct, of course.
• Don’t be afraid to slam the politician, but only when you have hard evidence to support your claims.
• Don’t pick the most well-known politician in your country (many other students will write about them).
• Follow all the relevant academic writing standards with respect to the style you write in (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.)

If you are looking for cool ideas, don’t be afraid to join chat rooms and start a debate. You would be amazed by how many people are going to chime in. Political chat rooms and forums are a great source of the best ideas and topics, so don’t be afraid to make good use of them!

Take a break from writing.

Top academic experts are here for you.

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23 Civic Leadership

Richard A. Couto is with Union Institute and University and a founding faculty member of the Antioch University PhD Program in Leadership and Change. Prior to that he was a founding faculty member of the Jepson School at the University of Richmond, where he held the George M. and Virginia B. Modlin Chair in Leadership Studies, 1991–2002. His recent books include: Political and Civic Leadership: A Reference Handbook (Sage 2010); and (with James MacGregor Burns), Reflections on Leadership (University of America Press 2007). His work has won numerous national awards, including best book in transformational politics from the American Political Science Association, and the Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Prize of the Independent Sector.

• Published: 13 January 2014
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This chapter distinguishes between government, economy, and the third sector to locate the space for a civic leadership that can promote social change. The chapter separates leadership from formal positions of authority. This simple decoupling has profound implications. It extends politics beyond the realm of government, and challenges fundamental assumptions about leadership, including intentions, the nature of power and authority, and followership. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future directions for the study of civic leadership.

1 Introduction

Civic leadership challenges the conceptual boundaries that we set for politics and leadership. It extends politics beyond the realm of government and leadership beyond positional authority. Civic leadership may also challenge the practice of ordinary politics that often ignores the inconvenient truths of social, economic, and political conditions. To thrive effectively, civic leadership requires civil society to be a space autonomous from the economic and political realms. This chapter examines some of the bedrock assumptions about political leadership; the nature of civil society and civic leadership; and some of the anomalies that civic leadership presents for our paradigms about politics and leadership. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future directions for the study of civic leadership.

2 Politics, Leadership, and Leaders

For most of human history, politics and leadership were one and the same subject. Notable thinkers, in different times and contexts, concerned themselves with public purpose and its corollaries of processes and leadership to achieve it ( Strauss and Cropsey 1987 ). Even the myths of oral tradition ( Flowers 2010 ) asked the primary questions of politics: where does the authority of political leaders come from? For what purposes are political leaders entrusted with authority and power? Who may hold them accountable to those purposes? Unfortunately, for most of this time our thoughts about leadership also had a leader-centric focus on the desired or observed characteristics or styles of people with positional authority. From Plato and Confucius to the present day, our notions of political leadership have imbibed the leader-centric tradition of much of political philosophy and the current paradigms of leadership studies. Despite dramatic democratic revolutions over the past several centuries, which have redefined the nature of authority and invested it in new forms of participation and legitimation, the largest part of the study of politics and leadership still identifies leadership with leaders—that is, people in positions of authority and formal power.

To examine civic leadership is to invite a departure from those traditional approaches to political leadership and a shift in attention to leadership as an action, not a position; that is, specifically taking initiative on behalf of shared values and common benefit. We expect our leaders with formal roles of authority to lead—that is, to take that initiative. The frequent call for leadership clearly entails a request for action because leadership is more than a title or position. Moreover, this definition of leadership implies that everyone, regardless of position, can be a leader by taking initiative on behalf of shared values and common benefit. Robert Tucker (1981) , a political scientist, makes this distinction as one of constituted and non-constituted leadership. Ronald Heifetz (1994) built on Tucker to distinguish between authority and leadership and measured the latter in terms of the mobilization of a group’s resources to meet challenges to its well-being within its environment. Civic leadership involves leadership as an action and not a position. It includes the actions of ordinary people without positions of power and authority, such as the legendary Dutch boy who plugged the leak in the dike that protected his city. To explore civic leadership as leading without formal political authority, we need to explore the realm where we find it—civil society.

3 Civil Society and Civic Leadership

John Ehrenberg distills civil society’s changing forms and conceptualizations over time and finds that ‘civil society delineates a sphere that is formally distinct from the body politic and state authority on the one hand, and from the immediate pursuit of self-interest and the imperatives of the market on the other’ ( Ehrenberg 1999 : 235). In the 2000s, civil society is often equated with another space distinct from government and business, appropriately termed the ‘third sector’ ( Salamon et al. 2004 ). Figure 23.1 presents these three distinct sectors.

Unfortunately, as is often the practice, Figure 23.1 conflates disparate parts of the third sector with civil society. We offer business executives—for example Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and billionaire—accolades for their philanthropy; for their participation on boards of third-sector organizations that address a community problem or need; or for their promotion of the arts, cancer research, or some other worthwhile cause. Voluntary associations within the third sector, also called non-profit organizations or non-governmental organizations, provide civic leadership through the cultural events, human services, and other vital and valuable programmes they conduct for the general benefit of the community. Local public officials may be praised for their civic-mindedness when they support the non-governmental organizations of the third sector in their efforts for some community improvement. These all touch upon the vital centre of civil society but do not express its core.

Civil society as the third sector

This conflation of civil society with the third sector ignores the political differences within the third sector and thus obscures a more precise meaning of civil society ( Edwards 2011 : 83). For example, some environmental groups in the third sector, such as Greenpeace, are more deliberate and intentional in their political purpose than other environmental groups, such as bird-watching clubs. In addition, normative or even utopian aspirations for a world in which more people have greater opportunities for complete human development are part of the space of civil society.

Among ameliorative voluntary associations, some protect and nourish happiness or attempt to extend its opportunities as a matter of charity or voluntary individual and social responsibility and thus reflect the differences of wealth and opportunity within society. Others seek to do so as a matter of justice ( Rawls 1971 ; Freire 1993 : 27; Sen 1999 ; Nussbaum 2000 ) and thus highlight the differences of wealth and opportunity within society. Saul Alinsky, an iconic US community organizer, is alleged to have said that his role was ‘to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable’, but, in practice, the voluntary associations within civil society may comfort the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable in varying degrees. Dom Helder Camara, a Brazilian archbishop and pioneer of liberation theology, portrayed a balancing act between running voluntary associations and exercising civil-society leadership, when he observed that when he gave food to the poor, people called him a saint, but when he asked why they were poor, they called him a Communist. Hillel Schmid contrasts an inclusive definition of civil society that embraces all groups of the third sector with a narrower definition that distinguishes service providers from advocacy and watchdog groups ( Schmid 2009 ). Just like the very earliest accounts of advocacy and monitoring groups, Schmid presents them as counterweights to government and gives less attention to their role vis-à-vis business and the collusion of business and government. Figure 23.2 portrays one model of civil society as the overlap of the government, business, and third sectors, but distinct from all of them. It suggests that the realm of government may overlap with business and the third sector and that business may overlap with government and the third sector. The model presents a balance among the sectors seldom achieved. Leadership within civil society pushes out and attempts to create or contain the appropriate boundaries of the first and second sectors, especially their overlap—where politics and civil society may be commodified by economics, or economics and civil society folded into the political sector within an authoritarian state.

Distinctions within the third sector and within civil society

This chapter takes the more specific view of civil society as the space within which people attempt to redress conditions, such as human needs and rights or environmental degradation, ignored or exacerbated by the ordinary practice of politics and economics. Kumi Naidoo, formerly secretary general of CIVICUS, a global alliance for citizen participation, and executive director of Greenpeace International, and his co-author Siddharth Bannerjee explain that the developing southern hemisphere especially has witnessed the development of more civil-society organizations, nationally and transnationally, as legitimate public actors to participate alongside state and market ‘in the making of public policies designed to resolve collective problems and advance the public good’ ( Naidoo and Bannerjee 2010 : 37).

Having distinguished between service and advocacy groups in the third sector, we must now attempt to distinguish between advocacy groups. We are dealing with the form of civil society that provides hope for social transformation for democratic ends and by participatory and inclusive processes ( Cohen 2010 ). We can find one statement of the transforming agenda of civil society in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Robert Putnam, drawing upon a Toquevillean emphasis on the efficacy and democratic nature of voluntary associations for mutual help ( Putnam, Leonardi, and Nanetti 1993 ; Putnam 2000 ), stressed only the salutary political nature of associational life, especially in the development of social capital ( Wood 2010 ). He, like Figure 23.2 and our discussion so far, ignores the civic leadership associations committed to upholding caste-like restrictions of inequality—uncivil society groups ( Bob 2011 ). These groups suggest the dark side of social capital that bonds similar groups without bridging them to other groups. In its most ideal forms, such as Martin Luther King’s ‘beloved community’, civil society leadership builds bridging bonds of social capital and explains that the lifting of caste restrictions liberates those upon whom they were applied and those who applied them ( Orwell 1936 ; King 1957 ; Freire 1993 : 27). Clearly, however, King encountered white supremacist groups, formal and informal associations, determined to resist changes in segregation and civil rights that also reside in civil society.

This brings us to one final distinction among advocacy groups. Some of them represent the realm of deliberative democracy in which principles—such as liberty, equality, accountability, and transparency—and decision-making processes—such as deliberation, bargaining, and negotiation among groups—assure that policies and decisions are justified to those who are bound by them. The values of deliberative democracy flow from reciprocal relationships in democratic politics—public spiritedness, mutual respect, and moral understanding ( Gutmann and Thompson 2010 : 326). The realm of deliberative democracy has an obvious relationship with the perspective of civil society that Naidoo and Bannerjee offered.

Some civil-society groups advocating social justice, however, may have to contend with other groups from all three sectors to achieve reciprocity and the capacity to participate in deliberative democracy. Thus, advocacy groups may employ tactics of contention to halt the ordinary processes of politics to have their claims against another group or sector taken seriously and thus accorded the respect that precedes deliberation. Thus, a labour union may conduct a strike. A racial, ethnic, or religious group may boycott merchants. Recent scholarship has brought these and other tactics such as social movements, protest, and revolution under the umbrella of contentious politics ( McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001 ; Tilly and Tarrow 2006 ).

Rather than being distinct realms, contentious politics and deliberative democracy complement each other within civil society—although the former deals explicitly with power and violence, a point to which we will return. For the moment, let us stress the common elements of these realms with advocacy in civil society. Betsy Leondar-Wright and William Gamson suggest that the distinctive leadership of social movements functions similarly to civil-society leadership, especially advocacy groups. It provides a collective action frame of political consciousness that supports participation in collective action. The three components of this frame, listed here in a rough order from less to more similarity between social movement and civil-society leadership, include an identity component that defines a group as we and a set of adversaries as they who have responsibility for an injustice; an injustice component that is a ‘hot cognition’, that is laden with emotion; and, particularly significant, an agency component:

The agency component (also known as empowerment or collective efficacy) refers to the belief that it is possible to change conditions or policies through collective action. Collective action frames deny the immutability of some undesirable situation and empower people by defining them as potential agents of their own history. They suggest not merely that something can be done but that we can do something. ( Leondar-Wright and Gamson 2010 : 350)

The space of civil society, which defines civic leadership, requires some degree of autonomy from government and economic actors; speaks to collective and individual interests and needs; contests the efforts of government or the economy to encroach the space of the other sectors; and brings people together individually and in associations to hidden or taken-for-granted spaces to envision and practise democratic forms of increased equality, representation, and participation in decision-making on public matters.

4 Civic Leadership

Working within this space, civic leadership regularly contends with existing assumptions about politics and leadership. As Dom Helder Camara (1971) pointed out, the question ‘Why?’, is the anthem of civil society and distinguishes it from other segments of the third sector. Of the ordinary assumptions of the political sector, the authoritative allocation of values or who gets what, when, and how ( Lasswell 1936 ; Easton 1953 ), it asks: why? This question broadens the definition of politics by raising the possibility that the legitimacy of authoritative political arrangement may itself be a social, political, and economic allocation and subject to examination and political change. The way in which civil leadership challenges the cognitive and cultural forms of power and legitimacy may appear to those in formal positions of authority, and with coercive power, as criminal sabotage. It may be for this reason that the most profound reflections on peaceful social transformation often involve jails ( Thoreau 1849 ; Dostoyevsky 1948 ; King 1963 ; Gandhi 1993 ; Gramsci 1998 ; Suu Kyi 1999 ). Similarly, the most iconic images of oppressive violence come from the repression of disruptive, but peaceful, dissent, such as the detention, torture, and execution of thousands of dissidents at the national soccer stadium ordered by Augusto Pinochet in 1973; the military repression of students in Tiananmen Square in 1989; and the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwi in Nigeria in 1995.

The study of civic leadership may be as contentious to the field of leadership studies as the practice of civic leadership is to politics, because it challenges three premisses of leadership:

Intentionality: is it leadership if someone’s action sets off consequences even if they were not deliberately intended?

Leadership without position and power: can we separate leadership from people with formal power of position and authority—and link it to the act of leading that anyone can undertake?

Followers: finally, are followers always essential to leadership, as we seem to think they are? Can we have leadership without them?

The examination of these challenges probes the nature of civic leadership and some of the challenges it presents to our assumptions about politics and leadership.

Intention, Causality, and Leadership

On 17 December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor—despondent that police had confiscated the produce he was trying to sell from his wheelbarrow and that his appeals for the return of his scales were ignored—acquired gasoline, poured it on himself, and set himself and much of the Arab world ablaze. In what has become known as the Arab spring, protests in his city started immediately, grew more intense with his death on 4 January 2011, and spilled over into other nations. Ten days after Bouazizi’s death, the president of Tunisia fled the country he had ruled for twenty-three years. Little less than a month later, the president of Egypt resigned. Eighteen days of citizen insurrection ended his thirty years in power. Despotic rulers in other countries yielded their power, were forced to do so, or resorted to the violent repression of protesters to fend off demands for their ouster. Bouazizi’s actions instigated a series of clearly dramatic events throughout the Arab world, but was it leadership?

James MacGregor Burns suggests that it was not. Burns sets as the litmus test of leadership, especially transforming political leadership, ‘the achievement of purpose in the form of real and intended social change’ ( Burns 1978 : 251; emphasis added). The real social change that he has in mind brings absolute values such as freedom, liberty, and justice closer to realization by reducing or removing political, economic, and social caste-like restrictions on a group. In a later work, Burns pointed to ‘the protection and nourishing of happiness, for extending the opportunity to pursue happiness to all people’, as the intentional agenda of transforming leadership ( Burns 2003 : 3). Although the Arab spring exemplifies this agenda of transforming leadership, there is little reason to believe that Bouazizi intended this consequence of his action.

Bouazizi voiced publicly, albeit tragically, what many others dared not say; his personal troubles were public issues ( Mills 1959 ). He did not so much lead others to make similar protests for similar reasons as much as he signalled their condition and catalysed their decision to find an alternative to despair with autocratic regimes and repressive conditions that stifled ordinary human aspirations and universally recognized human rights.

The same is true of other people who catalysed equally dramatic changes that were mostly unanticipated. For example, it is unlikely that Lech Walesa intended the dissolution of the Soviet Union when, in 1980, he scaled the fence at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk to join its striking workers. Similarly, in 1955 Rosa Parks may have had something in mind greater than maintaining her seat on the segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, when she refused to move further towards the back of the bus. Her intentions, however, probably did not include bringing about a year-long bus boycott and decades of struggles for the civil rights of African-Americans and other Americans that would inspire people around the world to confront forms of subordination and injustice. Clearly, the consequence of their actions exceeded their intentions. Unless we discount their actions for the central role they played in subsequent events, they challenge the assumption that leadership is linked to intended change.

Recent leadership scholarship that borrows from complexity theory also challenges the causality of leadership. Mary Uhl-Bien and Russ Marion assert that no one person, even if he or she is an apparent major figure in making new possibilities apparently necessary, can completely understand or predict the outcome of his or her action. ‘Leaders [with and without authority] are not really in control’ ( Uhl-Bien and Marion 2008 : pp. xvii–xix).

Despite this disconnect between intentions and causality, intentions remain central to leadership as a source of change. The deliberate efforts of Bouazizi to protest against the caste-like restrictions of his situation and that of other people like him made his actions leadership even if only a catalytic one rather than the causal factor in removing or reducing those restrictions. This interpretation of causation marks a shift from implicit or explicit assumptions about leadership as leader-centric command and control, to more process-centric and purpose-centric approaches to leadership, thus placing emphasis for the success of an initiative on behalf of shared values and common benefits on its context and environment. Leadership emerges as a necessary but not sufficient condition for change with an emphasis on its context, intention, and values rather than causality of events.

Power, Position, and Authority

All three of the people whom we are discussing had no authority for the initiative that they took for shared values and the benefit of others. This violates the assumption that leadership, especially political leadership, goes along with power, position, and authority. This hails from a venerable tradition going back to Max Weber (1946) , who discussed politics in terms of the formal authority of the state and its use of physical force. Joseph Nye (2008) ‘softens’ power to include influence as well as coercion, but still assumes, however, that a leader has the power, position, and authority to choose influence or coercion. Bouazizi, Walesa, and Parks, however, did not have positions of authority with power and thus no choice about how to use that power. Their leadership had to do with the role they played without the ordinary accoutrements of power ( Couto 1995 ). Thus civic leadership requires us to shift our attention from power over others to coerce compliance, to non-coercive power with others to resist coercion and caste-like restrictions. This power starts with power within that rejects the dominant cognitive and cultural forms that legitimize authority ( VeneKlasen and Miller 2002 ; Gaventa 2006 ).

The conventional view of leadership as positional authority (rather than the act of leading) dates back to and continues the myth of heroes with its emphasis on personal traits, including charisma, and person-centric causation theories about leadership ( Hook 1992 ; Flowers 2010 ). Ronald A. Heifetz regards the conflation of leadership with position and authority as the ‘central source of confusion in the leadership field’ ( Heifetz 2007 : 42). He illustrates this point in recounting the leadership of Lois, a First Nation tribal member of British Colombia, in addressing the epidemic of alcoholism within her band. Lois went out every Tuesday night for several months before her friend and babysitter Maggie got curious and followed her, with children in tow, to the tribal community centre. They saw Lois sitting in a folding chair within a circle of other chairs, all of them empty. When Lois got home, Maggie asked her what she was doing, and Lois explained that she was holding an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting. It was three years before people began attending those meetings and ten years before the room was full. Lois’s example and commitment inspired Maggie, and the two of them achieved remarkable success in their efforts. Heifetz concludes his story with a paean to leadership as the action of ordinary people.

The world is full of people like Maggie and Lois…who have exercised leadership sometimes only at key moments, and sometimes in sustained efforts, but quietly without notice…So to equate leadership with authority not only ignores a widespread and critically important social phenomenon, but also does injustice to all of these heroic people practicing necessary everyday leadership. ( Heifetz 2007 : 36–7)

Robert Tucker (1995) makes an equally powerful critique of another debilitating conflation, that of politics and power. Critiquing Weber, Tucker distinguished between constituted and non-constituted leaders—those with formal authority and those without it—and included both in his definition of a political leader: ‘One who gives direction, or meaningfully participates in the giving of direction, to the activities of a political community’ ( Tucker 1995 : 15). He extends the boundaries of politics beyond the state; replaces power as the foci of politics with values, the well-being of the polity; and suggests that non-constituted leadership has a large role in promoting the well-being of a political community.

In practice, non-constituted or unauthorized leadership brings ‘creeping crises’ ( Boin et al. 2005 : 16) to the attention of society and to constituted political leaders who have the authority to handle apparent or acute crises. Tucker calls this political function signalizing —‘appraising leaders of circumstances that appear meaningful enough to merit diagnosis and response’ ( Tucker 1995 : 31). Both non-constituted and constituted leadership have subsequent political roles in defining the attention demanding conditions and mobilizing support for their remedy. The unique authority of constituted leadership entails responsibility to prescribe action and policy and assign responsibility to carry them out. Heifetz refines the power of constituted leadership further when he explains authority as conferred power: a resource provided to a constituted leadership to do the adaptive work of responding to changes or conditions in a group’s environment that challenge its well-being ( Heifetz 1994 : 8, 49, 57, 103).

Civic leadership, such as the examples we have used, may signal that constituted leadership has ignored or denied a creeping crisis long enough and challenge the legitimacy of its conferred power and authority. This happens in elections. When elections are not sufficient, civic leadership may devise new ways, such as advocacy and contentious politics, to express the illegitimacy of authority. These challenges shift our attention away from A’s coercive power over B to the far more important cultural and cognitive dimensions of power. These dimensions construct the legitimacy of constituted and non-constituted authority and ordinarily make coercion unnecessary or, if necessary, legitimate ( Foucault 1980 ; Tucker 1995 : 79–85; Lukes 2005 ). Civic leadership with its ubiquitous question ‘Why?’ confronts the hidden dimensions of power. Steven Lukes called them the second and third dimensions of power, which operate to modify the public’s wants, needs, desires, and beliefs, and politicizes culture ( Lukes 2005 ; Calhoun 2011 : 315; Gaventa 2011 ). Michel Foucault, like Lukes, distinguished coercive and non-coercive forms of power, sovereign and non-sovereign, and called the latter the regime of truth where we find the central problem of politics: ‘detaching the power of truth from the forms of hegemony, social, economic, and cultural, within which it operates at the present time’ ( Foucault 1980 : 133).

Despite the hegemonic appearances of power and authority as Foucault and Lukes portray them, Paulo Freire maintains another form of power that comes with the possibility of people knowing the political and social ramifications of their knowledge and culture ( Freire 1993 : 96; see also Horton and Freire 1990 ). He argues that, since the reality of non-coercive forms of power comes from a cultural process in which we all participate, there is also a possibility for the social reconstruction of reality, a pedagogy of liberation ( Freire 1993 : 56). The recurrence and ubiquity of civic leadership for social change suggests that Freire’s hope is well founded: ordinary people, such as Lois and Maggie, can and do take unauthorized actions of leadership that challenge sovereign as well as non-sovereign forms of power. The practice of civic leadership not only broadens our understanding of the cultural and cognitive dimensions of power, position, and authority, but also suggests the non-coercive power of those without position and authority to confer and withdraw the legitimacy of authority from those with them.

Civic Leadership and Followers

When we take away position, authority, and coercive power from civic leadership, the subordination of ‘followers’, implied ordinarily in leadership studies, becomes problematic. Heifetz explains the inadequacy of the term ‘followership’ in those instances where leadership inspires the agency of others and the power within to find power with others.

The black and white people mobilized by the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s felt mobilized to exercise leadership themselves; and most became engaged citizens. Few, if any, had an experience of ‘followership’. In short, the term inaccurately describes a leadership that mobilizes responsibility-taking and generates more leadership. ( Heifetz 2007 : 41–2).

Although specific to Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Heifetz’s words describe the engaged people of the Arab spring and the Solidarity Movement in Poland and beyond. Lest we link civic leadership only with social movements, his observation applies to the alcoholics and addicts whom Lois and Maggie assisted to attempt their own recovery.

Burns recognizes the interdependence of leaders and followers and attempts to distinguish among them by a difference in initiative. The first, or proximal, action ‘breaks up a static situation and establishes a relationship’ ( Burns 2003 : 172). The efficacy of this first action, though, does depend upon others to take their own initiative on behalf of the values and benefits expressed, however inchoately, in that first action ( Tucker 1995 : 86). In this sense, civic leadership attracts other leaders, not followers, who act on their own behalf for shared values and for benefits for others like them. If they are followers, it is only because of the sequence of the discovery of their powers enabling them to take efficacious action with others. In this sense, all of leadership follows upon the initiative of others that preceded it, even if only to leave a legacy and strategy of resistance and pride in the group ( Walters 2007 : 152).

In addition to time as sequence, civic leadership entails space, physical ( Evans and Boyte 1992 ; Evans 2010 ; Boyte 2011 ), psychological ( VeneKlasen and Miller 2002 ), and, increasingly, virtual ( Shirky 2009 ), to mobilize responsibility-taking and the initiative of others. The space of the conventional considerations of leadership is organizational with an implied hierarchy; leadership is the space above a subordinate until you get to the top of the pyramid. The spaces of civic leadership begin within people who identify with a narrative that conveys the values of a group and explains the need for action on its behalf. The narratives that legitimate marginalization, human need, and caste-like restrictions, the hidden dimensions of power, find their counter-narrative in the shared spaces of civic leadership. James Scott (1990) argues that oppressed groups, such as Bouazizi’s counterparts and those of Walesa and Parks, maintain a set of ‘hidden transcripts’, their own knowledge of what is right and true, and hence their own power, in spite of an apparent allegiance to mechanisms of domination, the non-sovereign forms of power. ‘The process of domination generates a hegemonic public conduct and a backstage discourse consisting of what cannot be spoken in the face of [coercive] power’ ( Scott 1990 : p. xii). When public dissent or even free speech is not permissible in public, it continues in ‘free spaces’—semi-public places, such as some faith-based or labour groups, and more private spaces where small groups of like-minded dissidents may gather. Sara Evans, one of the first theorists on free spaces, suggest that free spaces are

key preconditions for democratic insurgencies, and…fundamental requirements for sustaining democratic societies in the face of consolidating power in globalizing corporations and massive state bureaucracies…Free spaces are those spaces of political freedom—even when they are niches in an otherwise totalitarian context—in which people can use the freedom to speak as equals to begin the process of envisioning a democratic future that they can work toward together. ( Evans 2010 : 359)

In the words of Jackie Reed, a community organizer in Chicago, leadership may be defined in terms of this provision of space. ‘Leadership sets up an opportunity for others to give their gifts, for others to contribute to community’ (Reed, in Couto 2002 : p. xii).

John Gaventa and his colleagues at the Institute for Development Studies explore the concept of power and empowerment in connection with space. Free spaces are those spaces for political participation that marginalized groups make for themselves: sometimes publicly taken—for example, Tiananmen Square, Tahrir Square, and Plaza de Mayo—and sometimes borrowed for a political purpose—a union hall or theatre such as the Green Lantern in Prague during the Velvet Revolution. In these spaces, people rediscover the human agency that Freire holds dear—the capacity of people to make history as well as being made by it.

5 The Future of Civic Leadership

Civic leadership suggests a space for politics and political associations outside the state and with power other than coercion. In its forms of advocacy and contention, civic leadership gives additional meaning to politics as the art of the possible by raising our sights to new possibilities for democratic equality and processes of representation and participation. What would a methodology look like that reflected this subject of study? It would seem to require the sociological imagination ( Mills 1959 ) that finds public issues in personal troubles; the signalizing function of civic leadership ( Tucker 1995 ); and normative assumptions about democracy, democratic practice, power, and human agency. The validity and legitimacy of the voices of civic leadership are much more likely to be claimed by researchers employing ethnographic methods grounded in phenomenology and the social construction of meaning than by researchers wedded to modernist-empiricist assumptions of social science research ( Guba and Lincoln 2000 ). This may mean a range of methodologies that explicitly promote democratic ends and means by not only the study of or even for civic leadership, but through participatory action research with and by civic leadership ( Couto, Hippensteel Hall, and Goetz 2005 ). The more it reflects its subject, the more the study of civic leadership may have to deal with the authoritative allocation of values, the politics, of research. Civic leadership informs us that, behind politics, there is power.

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On Political Leadership

“The yearning for a strong individual leader who will dominate all and sundry is the pursuit of a false god,” argues Archie Brown (University of Oxford), guest editor of the Summer 2016 issue of Dædalus . Since no leader in a democracy was ever elected because he or she was believed to have a monopoly of wisdom, it defies both common sense and democratic values for other members of the leadership team to subordinate their independent judgment to the perceived preferences of the top leader. “Wise decisions,” Brown writes in his essay, “Against the Führerprinzip ,” are “less likely to be forthcoming when one person can predetermine the outcome of a meeting or foreclose the discussion by pulling rank.” Yet, notwithstanding ghastly experience with overweening leaders in many different countries, the craving for a “strong leader” still persists, and is a major factor in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

These and other issues of great and topical significance concerning the character and quality of political authority are explored by the multinational and multidisciplinary group of authors convened in this issue of Dædalus.

Introduction

Leadership, equality & democracy.

Democracy is rooted in the idea of political equality, but wealth inevitably dictates that some citizens are “more equal” than others. Thus, profound and worsening socioeconomic inequalities pose a fundamental threat to Western democratic governance. In this essay, Nannerl Keohane argues that only passionate and pragmatic leadership—found with presidents and heads of government but also with congressional committees, local politics, and education—can overcome the dangers of a polity in which the power of money so exceeds the will of the people as effectively to veto social change.

Rethinking the Psychology of Leadership: From Personal Identity to Social Identity

Effective leadership is the capacity to mobilize a mass constituency to bring about shared goals. But the same qualities that make one leader effective may render another useless. Using a social identity approach, psychologists S. Alexander Haslam and Stephen D. Reicher explore leadership as an influence process built on an internalized sense of group membership shared between leaders and followers. Successful leaders not only represent and mirror their followers, but actively create, advance, and embed this identity in pursuit of their goals.

Presidential Leadership & the Separation of Powers

The U.S. presidents judged the “greatest” leaders by historians and pundits are also the most heavily criticized by legal scholars. These presidents overcame the barriers erected by Madison’s separation of powers and breached the constitutional norms they swore to uphold. What then stops presidents from abusing their powers? Eric Posner points to the multifaceted nature of presidential leadership: the president is at once leader of the country, a party, and the executive branch. The conflicts between these interests constrain his or her power.

Women & Legislative Leadership in the U.S. Congress: Representing Women’s Interests in Partisan Times

Women are drastically underrepresented in American political institutions. This has prompted speculation about the impact of electing more women on policy and the functioning of government. Examining the growing presence of women in Congress, Michele Swers demonstrates that women exhibit unique policy priorities, focusing more on the needs of various groups of women. However, the incentive structure of the American electoral system, which rewards ideological purity, means that women are not likely to bring more consensus to Washington.

Varieties of Presidentialism & of Leadership Outcomes

What is the relationship between institutional power and political leadership? What is the effect of presidential institutions on political, economic, and social outcomes? Robert Elgie examines the protracted debate among political scientists about whether a parliamentary or presidential system is more conducive to the transition to democracy, and argues that any approach to studying institutional power must account for the quality and style of specific political leaderships and the interactions between institutions, leaders, and contexts.

Authoritarian Leadership in the Post-Communist World

Several of the successor states to the Soviet Union have seen the emergence of monstrous cults of personality; in a number of cases, their presidents wield even more individual power than that of party leaders in the post-Stalin Soviet era. Eugene Huskey explores the origins and development of personalistic rule in these states, finding significant variation among the approaches leaders have used to consolidate power and outline a post-Soviet future.

Leadership–It’s a System , Not a Person!

Highlighting the absurdity of what she calls the “leadership industry,” Barbara Kellerman suggests that “we do not have much better an idea of how to grow good leaders, or of how to stop or at least slow bad leaders, than we did one hundred or even one thousand years ago.” Kellerman questions the overwhelming importance of individual leaders to begin with, looking instead to contexts and followers, and calls for the replacement of the lucrative but vapid industry surrounding leadership training and education.

Multiple but Complementary, Not Conflictual, Leaderships: The Tunisian Democratic Transition in Comparative Perspective

While democracy has spectacularly failed to take root in Egypt, Syria, and Libya, an impressive but still fragile democracy has emerged in post–Arab Spring Tunisia. Alfred Stepan notes a commonality with the transitions that produced effective democratic leadership in Indonesia, Spain, and Chile; like those nations, Tunisia has had a multiplicity of cooperating leaders, rather than a single “strong leader” or multiple conflictual leaderships. This case study outlines key features of the Tunisian transition.

Against the Führerprinzip : For Collective Leadership

The yearning for a strong individual leader who will dominate all and sundry is the pursuit of a false god. Yet the craving for a “strong leader” still persists, and is a major factor in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In his essay, Archie Brown highlights the ineffectiveness and dangerousness of powerful individual leaders. He argues that since no leader in a democracy was ever elected because he or she was believed to have a monopoly of wisdom, it defies both common sense and democratic values for other members of the leadership team to subordinate their independent judgment to the perceived preferences of the person at the top.

In Favor of “Leader Proofing”

Strong leaders are by definition high-risk individuals likely to do more harm than good; the best-governed liberal democracies have actually obviated the need for them. Anthony King concludes the issue by arguing that while there may be crises necessitating the acquisition and wielding of power by a single leader, there is much to be said for a liberal democracy’s “political culture and institutions having built into them a fair amount of ‘leader proofing.’”

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My Father's Lunch My Leader’s Pool

Saturday afternoon, End of the month, he'd sit at the kitchen table he’d float on the water, in khakis and a workshirt. in a blue swimming short White napkin, a beer, the serrated knife. Body guards, waitress, trainers.

Pieces of prosciutto or headcheese Amarula at his disposal or Ciroc

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Outside, the ripe hayfields Awaiting, the media guys

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There is an array of talented politicians who have lodged their presence and remembered in United States of America due to their style, performance, achievements and policies. This is not easy to choose a single leader from a bunch of talented people but on basis of their achievements and how they handled the situations, we would try to find out most significant American political leader of twentieth century. This paper talks about Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Essay On Historical Figures

Arguably, every country in the world has significant historical figures, whose activities are attributed liberation, independence, revolutions, as well as war. Others have steered the country into radical political, economic, and social changes. Certainly, these leaders are the basis of the contemporary situations. Some of these historical figures include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock.

Thomas Jefferson

The Political System Essay

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Guest Essay

Trump’s Backers Are Determined Not to Blow It This Time Around

By Thomas B. Edsall

Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.

In a rare display of unity, more than 100 conservative tax-exempt organizations have joined forces in support of Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda, forming a $2 billion-plus political machine.

Together, these organizations are constructing a detailed postelection agenda, lining up prospective appointees and backing Trump in his legal battles.

Most of the work performed by these nonprofit groups is conducted behind closed doors. Unlike traditional political organizations, these groups do not disclose their donors and must reveal only minimal information on expenditures. In many cases, even this minimal information will not be available until after the 2024 election.

Nonprofits like these are able to maintain a cloak of secrecy by positioning themselves as charitable organizations under section 501(c)(3 ) of the tax code or as social welfare organizations under section 501(c)(4 ).

Not only are these tax-exempt organizations attractive to large contributors who want to keep their roles secret; 501(c)(3) groups have an added benefit: Donors can deduct their gifts from their taxable incomes.

The benefits don’t end there. The minimal reporting requirements imposed on political nonprofits lend themselves to self-dealing, particularly the payment of high salaries and consulting fees, and the award of contracts to for-profit companies owned by executives of the charitable groups.

“The growth of these groups is largely flying under the radar,” Sean Westwood , a political scientist at Dartmouth, wrote by email in response to my inquiry. “This level of coordination is unprecedented.”

Theda Skocpol , a professor of government and sociology at Harvard, replying by email to my inquiry, wrote, “These are detailed plans to take full control of various federal departments and agencies from the very start and to use every power available to implement radical ethnonationalist regulations and action plans.”

This activity, Skocpol continued, amounts to a “full prep for an authoritarian takeover, buttressed by the control Trump and Trumpists now have over the G.O.P. and its apparatuses.”

In this drive by the right to shape policy, should Trump win, there are basically three power centers.

The first is made up of groups pieced together by Leonard Leo , a co-chairman of the Federalist Society, renowned for his role in the conservative takeover of the Supreme Court and of many key posts in the federal and state judiciaries.

If cash is the measure, Leo is the heavyweight champion. Two years ago, my Times colleagues Kenneth P. Vogel and Shane Goldmacher disclosed that a little-known Chicago billionaire, Barre Seid , who made his fortune manufacturing electronic equipment, turned $1.6 billion over to the Marble Freedom Trust , a tax-exempt organization created by Leo in 2021, helping to turn it into a powerhouse.

The second nexus of right-wing tax-exempt groups is the alliance clustered on Capitol Hill around the intersection of Third Street Southeast and Independence Avenue — offices and townhouses that fashion themselves as Patriots’ Row .

Former Trump campaign aides, lawyers and executive appointees, including Mark Meadows , Stephen Miller , Edward Corrigan and Cleta Mitchell , run these organizations. After Trump was defeated in 2020, the cash flow to these groups surged.

The third center is coordinated by the Heritage Foundation , which, under the leadership of Kevin D. Roberts , who assumed its presidency in 2021, has become a committed ally of the MAGA movement.

Heritage, in turn, has created Project 2025 in preparation for a potential Trump victory in November. In a statement of purpose, the project declared:

It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on Day 1 of the next conservative administration.

There are more than 100 members of Project 2025, and they include not only most of the Patriots’ Row groups but also much of the Christian right and the anti-abortion movement.

In the view of Lawrence Rosenthal , the chairman and founder of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, the convergence of so many conservative organizations leading up to the 2024 election marks a reconciliation, albeit partial, between the two major wings of the Republican Party: the more traditional market fundamentalists and the populist nationalists.

“In 2024,” Rosenthal wrote by email,

the free-market fundamentalists are making their peace on a more basic level than simply tax cuts. Their historic long-term goal — rolling back the federal government to pre-New Deal levels — corresponds to the nationalists’ goal of “deconstruction of the administrative state.” This is what the likes of the now thoroughly MAGA-fied Heritage Foundation is putting together. Recasting the administrative state as the “deep state,” a veritable launchpad for conspiracy-mongering innuendo, easily brings the populists along for the ride despite a “What’s the Matter With Kansas”-like abandonment of their own economic interests on the part of a sector of the population particularly dependent on the range of targets like Social Security and Medicare that the administrative-state deconstructors have in their sights. In return the populists are seeing avatars of Christian nationalism in unprecedented roles of political power — to wit, the current speaker of the House.

The populist-nationalist wing has an agenda that “goes beyond what the free-market fundamentalists have had in mind,” Rosenthal continued:

The model here is by now explicitly Orbanism in Hungary — what Viktor Orban personally dubbed “illiberal democracy.” By now, MAGA at all levels — CPAC, media, Congress, Trump himself — has explicitly embraced Orban. Illiberal regimes claim legitimacy through elections but systematically curtail civil liberties and checks and balances, structurally recasting political institutions so as to make their being voted out of office almost unrealizable.

The centerpiece of Leo’s empire of right-wing groups is the Marble Freedom Trust. The trust described its mission in a 2022 report to the I.R.S.: “To maintain and expand human freedom consistent with the values and ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.”

In 2016, according to an April 2023 I.R.S. complaint against Leo filed by the Campaign for Accountability , a liberal reform advocacy group, Leo created a consulting company, BH Group, and in 2020 acquired a major ownership interest in CRC Advisors . Both are for-profit entities based in Virginia.

The Campaign for Accountability’s complaint alleges that “Leo-affiliated nonprofits” paid BH Group and CRC Advisors a total of $50.3 million from 2016 to 2020. During this period, according to the complaint, Leo’s lifestyle changed:

In August 2018, he paid off the 30-year mortgage on the McLean, Va., home, most of which was still outstanding on the payoff date. Later that same year, Leonard Leo bought a $3.3 million summer home with 11 bedrooms in Mount Desert, an affluent seaside village on the coast of Maine, using, in part, a 20-year mortgage of $2,310,000. Leonard Leo paid off the entire balance of that mortgage just one year later in July 2019. In September 2021, Leonard Leo bought a second home in Mount Desert for $1.65 million.

The complaint was based partly on a March 2023 Politico story by Heidi Przybyla. She wrote that her “investigation, based on dozens of financial, property and public records dating from 2000 to 2021, found that Leo’s lifestyle took a lavish turn beginning in 2016,” citing Leo’s purchases of the Maine properties, along with “four new cars, private school tuition for his children, hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to Catholic causes and a wine locker at Morton’s Steakhouse.”

In October 2023, Przybyla disclosed (also in Politico ) that Leo was refusing to cooperate with an investigation by Brian Schwalb , the attorney general for the District of Columbia, “for potentially misusing nonprofit tax laws for personal enrichment.”

In a study covering more recent data , Accountable US , another liberal reform group, reported that from 2020, when Leo acquired a share of CRC Advisors, to 2022, seven “groups with immediate ties to Leo’s network have made payments totaling at least $69.77 million to CRC Advisors.”

Those figures were confirmed by Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum , who reported that “the sums paid to CRC Advisors by seven nonprofit groups have doubled since Leo came aboard as co-owner and chairman in 2020.”

Leo defended the payments, telling Bloomberg that criticism of the money flowing to CRC Advisors is “baseless” and that CRC performs high-quality work. “CRC Advisors employs nearly 100 best-in-class professionals that put its clients’ money to work,” he told Bloomberg.

In the drive to set the stage for a future Trump administration, the second conservative power center is dominated by the Conservative Partnership Institute , which coordinates its own pro-Trump network.

From 2018 to 2020, the Conservative Partnership was a minor player in Washington’s right-wing community. In that period, according to its 990 report to the I.R.S., its revenues totaled $16.9 million. In the next two years, donations shot up to $80.7 million.

Seven executives at the partnership in 2022 made in excess of $300,000 a year, topped by Meadows, Trump’s last White House chief of staff, whose annual compensation at the Conservative Partnership totaled $889,687 in 2022.

The Conservative Partnership and allied groups do not disclose donors, and none of the data on how much they raised and spent in 2023 and 2024 — or the identities of grant recipients — will be available before Nov. 5, 2024, Election Day.

The Conservative Partnership, like many of its sister groups, filed its 990 reports to the I.R.S. for 2020, 2021 and 2022 on Nov. 15 of each following year. If that pattern continues, its reports covering 2023 and 2024 will not be filed until Nov. 15 of the next year.

The partnership lists its address as 300 Independence Avenue Southeast in Washington, a three-story office building on Patriots’ Row that was originally the German-American Building Association.

Groups using the same mailing address include the Center for Renewing America (“God, country and community are at the heart of this agenda”), the Election Integrity Network (“Conservative leaders, organizations, public officials and citizens dedicated to securing the legality of every American vote”), Compass Legal Group , American Creative Network (“We will redefine the future of media-related conservative collaboration”), the American Accountability Foundation (“Exposing the truth behind the people and policies of the Biden administration that threaten the freedoms of the American people”), America First Legal (“Fighting back against lawless executive actions and the radical left”), Citizens for Renewing America and Citizens for Sanity (“To defeat ‘wokeism’ and anti-critical-thinking ideologies that have permeated every sector of our country”).

Since it was formed in 2020, Stephen Miller’s America First Legal foundation has been a case study in rapid growth. In its first year, it raised $6.4 million. In 2021 this rose to $44.4 million and to $50.8 million in 2022.

America First lawyers wrote two of the amicus briefs arguing to the Supreme Court that Trump should be restored to Colorado’s ballot . In one of the briefs , America First defended Trump’s actions and language on Jan. 6, 2021:

President Trump did not “engage in” insurrection. To engage in something is to take an active, personal role in it. Comparisons in modern language abound. When news emerges that nations have “engaged in military exercises,” one expects to read that “ships and planes” have been deployed, not tweets or press releases. Similarly, if someone has been described as “engaging in violence,” one expects that the person being spoken about has himself used force on another — not that he has issued some taunt about force undertaken by a third party. Engaging in a matter and remarking publicly about it are not the same, even with matters as weighty as wars or insurrections.

While the Heritage Foundation had relatively modest revenues of $95.1 million in 2022, according to its I.R.S. filing , its Project 2025 has become an anchor of the MAGA movement.

Trump has said he does not feel bound to accept all of the Project 2025 proposals, but the weight of institutional support from the right and Trump’s lack of interest in detailed planning suggest that those proposals may well shape much of the agenda in the event of a Trump victory.

The authors of Project 2025 want to avoid a repetition of 2017, when Trump took office with scant planning and little notion of who should be appointed to key positions.

Spencer Chretien , an associate director of Project 2025, put this concern delicately in a January 2023 essay published by The American Conservative , pointedly avoiding any criticism of Trump:

In November 2016, American conservatives stood on the verge of greatness. The election of Donald Trump to the presidency was a triumph that offered the best chance to reverse the left’s incessant march of progress for its own sake. Many of the best accomplishments, though, happened only in the last year of the Trump administration, after our political appointees had finally figured out the policies and process of different agencies, and after the right personnel were finally in place.

One function of the project is to put as much ideological muscle as possible behind Trump to ensure that if he wins the White House again, he does not wander afield.

From the vantage point of the right, that muscle is impressive, ranging from Oren Cass’s populist American Compass to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America , from the tradition-minded American Conservative to the Independent Women’s Forum .

In the foreword to the project’s nearly 1,000-page description of its 2025 agenda, “ Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise ,” Roberts, the president of Heritage, wrote:

This book is the work of the entire conservative movement. As such, the authors express consensus recommendations already forged, especially along four broad fronts that will decide America’s future: 1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children. 2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people. 3. Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats. 4. Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely — what our Constitution calls “the blessings of liberty.”

Perhaps the most impressive part of Project 2025 is the detailed and ideologically infused discussion of virtually every federal department and agency, all guided by the goal of instituting conservative policies.

Take the 53-page chapter, including 87 footnotes, focused on the Department of Health and Human Services, written by Roger Severino , the vice president for domestic policy at Heritage. The top priority of the department in January 2025, he wrote, must be “protecting life, conscience and bodily integrity.” The secretary “must ensure that all H.H.S. programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from Day 1 until natural death: Abortion and euthanasia are not health care.”

Going deeper, Severino contended that the department must flatly reject “harmful identity politics that replaces biological sex with subjective notions of ‘gender identity’ and bases a person’s worth on his or her race, sex or other identities. This destructive dogma, under the guise of ‘equity,’ threatens American’s fundamental liberties as well as the health and well-being of children and adults alike.”

Severino did not stop there. In his view, the department must be in the business of “promoting stable and flourishing married families” because “in the overwhelming number of cases, fathers insulate children from physical and sexual abuse, financial difficulty or poverty, incarceration, teen pregnancy, poor educational outcomes, high school failure and a host of behavioral and psychological problems.”

Regarding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Severino’s analysis:

By statute or regulation, C.D.C. guidance must be prohibited from taking on a prescriptive character. For example, never again should C.D.C. officials be allowed to say in their official capacity that schoolchildren “should be” masked or vaccinated or prohibited from learning in a school building. Such decisions should be left to parents and medical providers.

At the start of the book, Paul Dans , the executive director of Project 2025, pointedly wrote that “it’s not 1980,” when Heritage produced the first “Mandate for Leadership” to guide the incoming administration of Ronald Reagan. Instead, Dans argued, the United States in 2024 is at an apocalyptic moment:

The game has changed. The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before. The task at hand to reverse this tide and restore our republic to its original moorings is too great for any one conservative policy shop to spearhead. It requires the collective action of our movement. With the quickening approach of January 2025, we have one chance to get it right.

This time, the conservative movement plans to exercise maximum surveillance over an incoming Trump administration. In other words, there will be no kidding around.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here's our email: [email protected] .

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An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of an associate director of Project 2025. He is Spencer Chretien, not Chretian.

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Thomas B. Edsall has been a contributor to the Times Opinion section since 2011. His column on strategic and demographic trends in American politics appears every Wednesday. He previously covered politics for The Washington Post. @ edsall

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Can Good Leaders Become Great Politicians?

A leader is any person who is appointed to be in charge of a body or a group of people and to take care of all their interests in an impartial way. He has to be strong mentally and able to guide his followers to success based on facts and considering the risks involved in making a move towards a specific set of goals. A politician, on the other hand, is a person who leads a group of people with common interests and holds or aspires to hold a position in a government. He has to be elected by the masses and has the obligation to represent their interests in the office that he holds and lead his or her subjects towards a bright future based on their interests. He must have great leadership skills in order to be considered successful.

One of the qualities of a great leader is the ability to be unselfish . A good leader must put the interests of his people first. One of the main challenges that a leader faces is ensuring that he considers the people’s interests above his own ones when making any decision. For instance, he has to award a tender. Some leaders fall into the temptation of awarding tenders to companies in which they have interests and end up paying more than they should at the expense of the organization that they are in charge of. If such a leader went ahead to be a politician in charge of a country, he or she would make inter-governmental deals, for example, import of goods, based on what they will gain on a personal level instead of looking at what the deal will be worth to the country. However, a leader who overcomes such a challenge will definitely make a great politician .

Being impartial is another quality of a good leader. The ability to treat everyone equally will make a difference between a good and a bad leader . Some organization heads will allocate staff to departments based on the ones they favor and not the ones that deserve it. This leads to some overstaffed and understaffed departments of the same organization, which affects the overall performance. An impartial leader will make a great politician , as he will allocate resources to the whole country based on its needs and not on whether the region supported him or her to the office or not. They will also appoint people to government offices based on their performance and not on their political affiliation. This will be to the benefit of the whole country and not just of a particular region.

Good decision making is another aspect of good leadership . Leaders have a responsibility to make decisions on behalf of the people who have appointed them to the position and the interests of the organization. Inability to do this leads to formation of poor policies and guidelines to the detriment of the company. The same case applies to a politician who is the President of a country . His sound decision making will lead to the development of his country politically, socially and economically. On the other hand, poor decision making will result in slow economic development , political instability and other unpleasant consequences.

Another aspect of a good leader is the ability to inspire. Being a leader involves guiding people positively and giving them hope in tough times. The world financial crisis was one of the challenges that called for inspiration of the people by their leaders . Companies were facing losses and had to make tough decisions, for example, budget cuts and staff retrenchment in order to stay afloat. Leaders who managed to inspire their staff through the tough financial times by giving them hope for a brighter future managed to guide their organizations through the crisis and quickly recover after the stabilization of the world economy. Such leaders would make great political heads, as they are able to inspire their countries through various social and economic challenges. These include unemployment, famine, poor housing and social security . We have an example of the current president of the United States of America who provided inspirational leadership through the world financial crisis. This turned out to be one of the reasons the people voted for him at the presidential elections .

Another aspect of a good leader is the ability to inspire. Being a leader involves guiding people positively and giving them hope in tough times. The world financial crisis was one of the challenges that called for inspiration of the people by their leaders . Companies were facing losses and had to make tough decisions, for example, budget cuts and staff retrenchment in order to stay afloat. Leaders who managed to inspire their staff through the tough financial times by giving them hope for a brighter future managed to guide their organizations through the crisis and quickly recover after the stabilization of the world economy. Such leaders would make great political heads, as they are able to inspire their countries through various social and economic challenges. These include unemployment, famine, poor housing and social security . We have an example of the current president of the United States of America who provided…

The four examples above are some of the many pointers to the fact that a good leader will make a great politician. A great leader is a product of good leadership and there is no way we can separate the two of them. A successful politician must have all the qualities of good leader, otherwise his or her government will be lacking in many aspects and this will affect the country’s growth negatively.

Are Children Acceptable as a Target Audience?

Today we can often hear about the immorality of commercial companies that treat children as the target audience of their products. They don’t have right to lure poor little children into… what? Buying something? Spending their money? Wasting their time? To begin with, the definition “poor little children” is wrong inherently. I don’t know where…

Midlife Demands

Sandwich generation refers to people caring for their children and aging parents at the same time (Burke & Calvano, 2017). Some of these individuals also have to manage their careers and grandchildren. Many factors contribute to this phenomenon, such as aging population, increasing number of children residing at home and more individuals opting for informal…

Can Curfews Keep Teens Out of Trouble?

Teens today are under tremendous pressure from all sides. On one side, there is pressure at school to perform well in their academics. As they go higher up the classes, subjects become more difficult and they need to spend more and more time studying to get good grades. On the other side, they have peer…

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Indian Politics Essay

500 words essay on indian politics.

Politics, simply speaking, refers to the activities surrounding a country’s governance. In the context of a large democratic country like India, politics becomes really complicated. This Indian politics essay will throw light on the politics of India.

                                                                                                                     Indian Politics Essay

Background of Indian Politics

Politics in India, like any other democratic country, involves the ruling party and the opposition. In India, the formation of political parties has taken place on the basis of ideology. Moreover, the Indian political parties belong to the left and the right political spectrum.

Leftist politics rely on the values of secularism , liberalism, and rebelliousness. In contrast, rightist politics favour the values of being pro-government, orderly, conservative, and traditional.

There are no definitions of left-right politics anywhere in the Indian constitution. Furthermore, these terms were given by commentators, authors, and journalists. Also, it has been witnessed in India that some politicians can change their political party and ideology.

Indeed for a stable democracy , it is necessary that both political ideologies, the right and left, operate side by side. As such, some times, the country may be under rightist influence while leftist ideals may dominate at another time. The two major political parties in India, BJP and Congress, clearly demonstrate the two different political spectrums of right and left respectively.

Problem with Indian Politics

For a democracy to work properly there must be a proper demarcation between the political ideologies. However, in India, the demarcation between these ideologies tends to get blurry, thereby resulting in the superimposition of one ideology over the other. This is certainly not an indication of a mature democracy.

The political system of India suffers due to the clash of different political ideologies. Furthermore, such clashes can turn out to be quite ugly. Most noteworthy, such clashes are detrimental to the development of the country as a whole.

Various other problems affect Indian politics like hatred, injustice, corruption, greed, and bigotry. Due to all these problems, Indian politics is called a dirty game. Such problems can also force many intellectual and eminent individuals to stay away from Indian politics.

Sometimes the Indian politicians may choose a political party, not because of the ideological stance, but rather due to the winning probability in the elections. This is a really sad reality of Indian politics. Moreover, it shows that such politicians care more about their own personal interests rather than the interests of the common people.

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Conclusion of Indian Politics Essay

Indian politics is a colourful drama and, according to some, its the great circus of the country. Despite such negative connotations, no one can doubt the enormously important role that politics has played in India. Most noteworthy, it is a crucial aspect of Indian democracy.

FAQs For Indian Politics Essay

Question 1: How many political parties are there in India?

Answer 1: According to the latest publication from the Election Commission of India, the total number of registered political parties in India is 2698. Furthermore, out of the registered political parties, 8 are national parties, 52 are state parties, and 2638 remain unrecognised. Also, registered parties that contest elections must have a symbol of their own that is approved by the EC.

Question 2: What are the two most powerful political parties in India?

Answer 2: The two most powerful political parties in India are the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress or Congress or INC. Furthermore, BJP is the leading right-wing party while Congress is the leading centrist/leftist party in India.

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