Political Leadership PSA Panel
University of Bath 11-13 April 2007
Comparative Political leadership in Western societies.
This panel will look at the burgeoning political science study of leadership. Leadership has been a preoccupation in other social sciences and the panel intends to take findings from cognate disciplines and add to the existing political science understanding of leadership with empirical findings and observations of its own. In this instance this will cover the typology of political leaders, leadership rhetoric and leadership failure. There will be a case study basis to the work but the intended objective is generalisations about comparative political leadership applicable to contemporary western political systems. The papers will draw on American findings in the field as well as on cross-cultural dissertations from the political science community.
‘Leadership Failure: Explaining the forced exit of British party leaders’
Dr McAnulla University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT
This paper examines leadership failure of a particular kind i.e. when British party leaders are forced by colleagues to leave their positions during the mid-term of a parliamentary cycle. It studies the circumstances surrounding the respective depositions of Margaret Thatcher (1990), Ian Duncan-Smith (2003) and Charles Kennedy (2006) In each case the paper seeks to identify the key factors which prompted party colleagues to lose faith in their leaders, examining the importance of public perceptions of leaders, divisions within party elites, inter-party competition, media news cycles, leadership strategies and personality issues. These cases will be compared with other ‘near misses’ during periods of leadership crisis for John Major and Tony Blair. In addition to uncovering factors which may be common to the failure/marginal survival of leaders the paper will seek to explain the flaring of crisis ‘moments’ for party leaders. Finally, attempts will be made to establish the relative importance of long term concerns regarding leadership performance as against the role of short-term and contingent factors in accounting for the demise of party leaders.
‘Harold Wilson; Party Leader and Prime Minister’
Dr V. Honeyman University of Leeds,Leeds, LS2 9JT
This paper will consider the leadership style of Harold Wilson, both as party leader and as Prime Minister. Wilson is often rather disparagingly condemned as a selfish leader of his party, more interested in his own personal ambition and machinations than the party’s continued success. As the most electorally successful Labour Leader and Prime Minister until the advent of Blair, this paper will consider whether history has done Wilson a great disservice. It will consider his leadership style within the party and as leader of the country and consider whether he did in fact put personal ambition and paranoia before the continued success of his party, or whether he was in fact a rather successful captain of a sinking ship in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
‘French Political Leadership: Rhetoric, Images and Style in the 2007 elections’
Prof J. Gaffney Languages and Social Sciences, University of Aston, Birmingham B47ET
In recent years, the study of political leadership has begin to focus upon
leadership and leadership competition in terms of performance. My recent
research has looked at leadership in these terms, particularly as discursive
performance, and in the context of two main literatures: the literature on
Constitutions; and the literature on political culture - looking therefore
at leadership performance in the context of the way culture influences and
informs institutional configuration. More recently, UK research has begun to
address the vast US literature on political leadership and leadership theory
[in particular the work of Hargrove and Theakston. This paper, in the context
of the above, will appraise the application of Hargrove and Theakston's work
[inter alia] in the context of French political leadership and leadership
competition and the presidential elections of Spring 2007.