Political Leadership

226 Pages·2001·0.657 MB·English

by  Howard J. Elcock

Political Leadership
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
Political Leadership
NEW HORIZONS IN PUBLIC POLICY
General Editor: Wayne Parsons
Professor of Public Policy, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London,
UK
This series aims to explore the major issues facing academics and practitioners working
in the field of public policy at the dawn of a new millennium. It seeks to reflect on where
public policy has been, in both theoretical and practical terms, and to prompt debate on
where it is going. The series emphasises the need to understand public policy in the
context of international developments and global change. New Horizons in Public Policy
publishes the latest research on the study of the policy making process and public
management, and presents original and critical thinking on the policy issues and problems
facing modern and post-modern societies.
Titles in the series include:
Beyond the New Public Management
Changing Ideas and Practices in Governance
Edited by Martin Minogue, Charles Polidano and David Hulme
Economic Decentralization and Public Management Reform
Edited by Maureen Mackintosh and Rathin Roy
Public Policy in the New Europe
Eurogovernance in Theory and Practice
Edited by Fergus Carr and Andrew Massey
Politics, Governance and Technology
A Postmodern Narrative on the Virtual State
P.H.A. Frissen
Public Policy and Political Institutions
The Role of Culture in Traffic Policy
Frank Hendriks
Public Policy and Local Governance
Institutions in Postmodern Society
Peter Bogason
Implementing European Union Public Policy
Roger Levy
The Internationalization of Public Management
Reinventing the Third World State
Edited by Willy McCourt and Martin Minogue
Political Leadership
Howard Elcock
Political Leadership
Howard Elcock
Professor of Government and Honorary Research Fellow,
University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK
NEW HORIZONS IN PUBLIC POLICY SERIES
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
©Howard Elcock 2001
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
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Cheltenham
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Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
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Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Elcock, H.J. (Howard James)
Political leadership / Howard Elcock
(New horizons in public policy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Political leadership. I. Title. II. New horizons in public policy.
JC330.3 .E43 2001
303.3'4–dc21 00–057679
ISBN 1 84064 059 6
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd.
Contents
Preface vii
PART I THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP
1 Why is leadership important? 3
2 Some classic analyses of political leadership 20
3 The personalities and environments of political leaders 43
4 Leadership, administration and management 64
5 The psychology of leadership 85
PART II LEADERSHIP ROLES
6 The functions of leadership: governing roles 105
7 The functions of leadership: governance and allegiance roles 128
8 The apparatus of leadership 149
9 Case study: leadership in British local government 166
10 Setting the course: leadership, not management 186
Bibliography 195
Index 209
v
In Memoriam
ROBERTBAXTER
Fearless iconoclast and true friend
Preface
Politics, declared Aristotle, is the master science. Rather more recently, Bernard
Crick described political science as either the most imperialistic or the most
parasitic of the social sciences. Certainly, it is very wide ranging and no scholar
would nowadays claim to be equally interested or expert in all branches of this
large and fissiparous discipline.
My primary interest in politics has always been in how political decisions are
taken. At first, the primary focus was international and historical: the process
by which the Treaty of Versailles was written. More recently, it has been
decision making in local government, both as a scholar and in practical terms
as a member of the first two Humberside County Councils and a member of its
leadership group.
Over the last five years, the opportunity has come my way to interview senior
politicians and officials about their leadership roles in local governments in the
United States of America, Germany and northern England. However, when
seeking analytical frameworks to use in presenting the findings resulting from
these interviews, I found that such analytical frameworks were curiously
lacking, despite the repeated debates about the ‘core executive’ in local
government which have been carried on in Britain under the general banner of
corporate management. This book is an attempt to develop some of the outlines
for such a framework.
This task, however, is the philosopher’s stone of modern political science.
Hence, to claim to have provided definitive answers to the many questions that
surround political leadership would be arrogant indeed. So this effort is offered
as a contribution to enabling people to think through the concept of political
leadership at a time when the managerialist receipts offered by the ‘New Right’
may be giving way to a new political and administrative paradigm: the ‘Third
Way’. It is certainly no claim of mine that all the relevant questions have been
satisfactorily answered here. Indeed, some of them may not even have been
asked! I hope only that perhaps what follows will help make a little more sense
of a complicated, greatly abused but most important political concept.
This is a book in the British political science tradition. It is eclectic in its
methodology, drawing on a wide range of sources. It does not seek to formulate
‘scientific’ propositions about how leaders behave and what objectives they
seek. The public choice theorists and their supporters in political science would
vii
viii Preface
have us treat leaders as ‘rational maximizers’ who will act in the ways which
are guaranteed to maximize their support among their followers. No allowance
is made for idealism and altruism, yet there is plenty of evidence that political
leaders are motivated by both – and, equally, by irrational hatreds.
The debts of gratitude I have incurred in nearly 40 years of teaching and
research are obviously legion. However, a few people must be singled out for
special thanks. First among equals come my good friends and colleagues at the
State of New York College at Fredonia, who helped me greatly both with the
interviews with American mayors and in developing the ideas that underlie this
book. In particular, my hearty thanks for their friendship and advice go to Len
Faulk and Bill Muller in the Political Science Department, Tom Rywick in
Psychology and Lee Braude in Sociology. In Germany, good friends at the
Fachhochschule fuer oeffentliche Verwaltung Nordrhein-Westfalen, with whom
the University of Northumbria has enjoyed scholarly links for ten years and
more, have given me much help and support, notably Friedrich Schwegmann
of the Fachhochschule’s Muenster campus and Wolf Bovermann in Wuppertal.
Simone Kruthoff and her friend Petra Weber were invaluable and charming
companions and translators during the German phase of the research.
I am also truly grateful to the very busy men and women in all three countries
who gave their time to answer my questions. Since they were mostly
interviewed on condition of anonymity, they cannot be named here but, if any
of them read this, you know who you are and I am sincerely grateful. My fellow
members and the officers of the former Humberside County Council also gave
me many insights, whether consciously or otherwise!
In Britain, I must thank my colleagues and students at the universities of
Hull and Northumbria for their tolerance of my eccentric teaching and other
habits over the years, as well as for their own varied contributions to my ideas
about leadership and management and their support of my research efforts.
David Welsh, Bill Hartas and Lord Norton of Louth have been especially
helpful. Other friends who have helped by reading and commenting on parts of
the book include David Shaw and Judith Phillips. Lastly, this book’s dedicatee
was, until his tragically early death, an invaluable source of inspiration, encour-
agement and challenge, as well as being a greatly treasured friend.
Of course, none of these good souls bears any responsibilities for the in-
adequacies and errors in what follows.
Howard Elcock
PART I
Theories of Leadership