The Democratic Leader

How Democracy Defines, Empowers, and Limits Its Leaders
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-965047-7
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 218 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 445 g

The Democratic Leader argues that leaders occupy a unique place in democracies. The foundational principle of democracy -- popular sovereignty -- implies that the people must rule. Yet the people can rule only by granting a trust of authority to individual leaders. This produces a tension that results in a unique type of leadership, specifically, democratic leadership. Democratic leaders, once they have the confidence and authority of the people, are very powerful because they rule through consent and not through fear. Yet in many respects they are the weakest of leaders, because democrats distrust leaders and impose on them a range of far-reaching constraints--legal, moral and political. The democratic leader must perpetually navigate the powerful and contending forces of public cynicism, founded in the suspicion that all leaders are self-interested power-seekers, and of public idealism, founded in a perennial hope that good leaders will act nobly by sacrificing themselves for the people. The Democratic Leader suggests that the inherent difficulty of this form of leadership cannot be resolved, and indeed is necessary for securing the strength and stability of democracy.

Zielgruppe

Scholars and students of political science, especially those interested in democracy studies, comparative government, and the role of political parties and political leadership in modern democracies

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kane, John

Patapan, Haig

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Politische Führung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Acknowledgments

- 1: Introduction

- 2: The Neglected Problem of Democratic Leadership

- 3: Democratic Leadership and the Problem of Legitimacy

- 4: The Moral Dilemma of Democratic Leadership

- 5: Leadership and Democratic Rhetoric

- 6: Leadership in a Constitutional Democracy

- 7: The Bureaucratic Challenge to Democratic Leadership

- 8: Democratic Leadership in Foreign Affairs

- 9: Honour and Democratic Leadership 144

- 10: Conclusion

- References

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Kane, John
John Kane researches and teaches in political theory, political leadership, and US foreign policy. He is a Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia

Patapan, Haig
Haig Patapan's research interests are in democratic theory and practice, political philosophy, political leadership, and comparative constitutionalism. He is a Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia. John and Haig were awarded the Australian Political Studies Association's Mayer Journal Article Prize for the paper judged to be the best published in the Australian Journal of Political Science in 2010. The award was given to the article, 'The Artless Art: Leadership and the Limits of Democratic Rhetoric' (45:3) which was drawn from a chapter in The Democratic Leader.

Patapan's research interests are in democratic theory and practice, political philosophy, political leadership, and comparative constitutionalism. He is a Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia. John and Haig were awarded the Australian Political Studies Association's Mayer Journal Article Prize for the paper judged to be the best published in the Australian Journal of Political Science in 2010. The award was given to the article, 'The Artless Art: Leadership and the Limits of Democratic Rhetoric' (45:3) which was drawn from a chapter in The Democratic Leader.