Leadership and Individual Political Choices
I. Learning Objectives
The three overarching goals of this chapter are for students to:
· understand key concepts related to individuals/leaders in politics and modes of individual decision-making
· apply these concepts to the TIC cases to appreciate the meaning and significance of each concept, as well as to understand similarities and differences among these countries
· employ these concepts and examples from the TIC cases in (in-class) critical thinking exercises related to the issues at hand
Choice Approach
· understand concepts and methods related to individual-based explanations for political outcomes rooted in the so-called ‘choice approach’ to the study of politics
Leadership and the Importance of Individuals in the Political Process
· understand the role of leadership in politics and the importance of various kinds of leadership traits, skills, and styles
Decision-making: Rational and Otherwise
· understand the concept of rational decision-making, as well as related terms and theories
· understand the concept of irrational choices, including explanations based on dissonance, groupthink, mood, emotion, and transference
I I. Chapter Outline
1. Introduction
· Chapter objectives
· The chapter opens with the story of the vice president of the Bulgarian National Assembly during World War II. His courageous choice to speak out against the Nazis’ deportation plans saved the lives of thousands of Bulgaria Jews. The choice approach is explained. This is briefly defined as a “concentration on individuals and their decisions.”
2. Leadership and the Importance of Individuals in the Political Process
-Leadersh ip is “the ability to influence members of a particular group to achieve a set of defined goals, ideally without making them feel forced to do so.” Leadership traits are in-born attributes, such as intelligence. Leadership skills are attributes that can be learned and developed, such as the ability to work well with people. Leadership style refers how leaders related to colleagues and subordinates. These concepts are explored in each of the TIC cases regarding current, recent, and local leaders.
· TIC Sections
o Leaders in the United Kingdom
§ Current Leader: David Cameron
§ Important Recent Leader: Tony Blair
§ Important Recent Leader: Margaret Thatcher
o Leaders in Germany
§ Current Leader: Angela Merkel
§ Important Recent Leader: Helmut Kohl
o Leaders in France
§ Current Leader: Francois Hollande
§ France’s Most Important Local Leader: Bertrand Delano?
· A Deepening Your Understanding feature noted at the end of this section and found on the companion website examines a French leader in the European Union, namely, Jacques Delors.
o Leaders in India
§ Current Leader: Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
§ India’s Other Current Leader: Pranab Mukherjee, President
§ Important Recent Leader: Atal Bihari Vajpayee
o Leaders in Mexico
§ Current Leader: Enrique Pena Nieto
§ Important Recent Leader: Vicente Fox
· A Deepening Your Understanding feature noted at the end of this section and found on the companion website examines a leader Mexico’s Chiapas uprising, namely, Subcomandante Marcos
§ Important Recent Leader: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
o Leaders in Brazil
§ Current Leader: Dilma Rousseff
§ Important Recent Leader: Fernando Henrique Cardoso
§ Important Recent Leader: Fernando Collor de Mello
o Leaders in Nigeria
§ Current Leader: Muhammadu Buhari
§ Important Recent Leader: Olusegun Obasanjo
§ Important Recent Leader: General Sani Abacha
o Leaders in the Russian Federation
§ Current Leader: Vladimir Putin
§ Important Recent Leader: Boris Yeltsin
o Leaders in China
§ Current Leader: Xi Jinping
§ Important Recent Leader: Hu Jintao
o Leaders in Iran
§ Current Leader: Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei
§ Current Leader: Hassan Rouhani
§ Important Recent Leader: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
§ Important Recent Leader: President Hojjatoleslam Seyed Mohammed Khatami
3. Decision-making: Rational and Otherwise
· Rationality
-This is defined as “a condition in which people base their decisions on reason and logic, taking logical steps in an effort to maximize their interests. Voters, for example, make pocketbook calculations, which are either retrospective or prospective. Other voters may take into account the well-being of society as a whole, which is known as sociotropic calculations. Regarding collective outcomes based on an aggregation of individual choices, an equilibrium point can be reached when no further improvement in the collective position is possible through changes in individual positions.
-Kenneth Arrow’s impossibility theorem holds that no method of aggregating preferences exists for three or more alternatives that meet a set of minimum criteria for fairness (outlined by Arrow). An example of this is voting paradox, which involves individuals choosing among three options with the ranked preferences of each preventing a majority for any of the possible outcomes.
· Bounded Rationality
-This concept, which is associated with Herbert Simon, emphasizes the extent to which individuals are constrained in their individual decision-making by cognitive limitations. Simon also identified the importance of satisficing, which is when humans select the first option that satisfies their aspirations, rather than selecting the ‘ideal’ option that a truly rational individual would choose.
· Irrational Choices?: Cognitive Dissonance, Groupthink, Mood, and Emotion
-Cognitive dissonance refers to individuals holding contradictory interests at the same time, which can result in irrational decision making. Groupthink can also lead to this result when individuals succumb to pressure from a group, rather than sticking with their own, original preference. Irrational decision making can also result from mood or emotion, though this may occur at a less-than-conscious level. Transference refers to the unconscious way that irrational decision making can result from viewing options in the context of past experiences.
· TIC Sections
o Important Political Decisions and Their Rationality in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and India
§ The United Kingdom: Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands Islands War
§ Germany: The German Currency Union
§ France: José Bové and McDonald’s
§ India: “Freezing” Further Consideration of the Indo-U.S. Nuclear Agreement
· A box in this section applies the theory of incrementalism to India.
o Important Political Decisions and Their Rationality in Mexico, Brazil, and Nigeria
§ Mexico: Ernesto Zedillo and Liberalization
§ Brazil: Cardoso and the Plano Real
§ Nigeria: The Rationality of the Nigerian Civil War
o Important Political Decisions and Their Rationality in the Russian Federation, China, and Iran
§ Russia (During the Soviet Period): The Coup against Mikhail Gorbachev
§ China: Mao, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution”
· A box in this section applies the theory of elite learning to Deng Xiaoping and Tiananmen Square protests.
§ Iran: The Choice to Bar Reformist Candidates in the 2004 Majlis Elections
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