Synopses & Reviews
Dispersed Democratic Leadership examines both the scope and consequences of the dispersal of the leadership role in democratic societies, a topic that has been relatively neglected by a political science literature dominated by studies of executive power. Individual chapters investigate the many loci of leadership found in modern democracies, some ancient and some newly emergent, some institutionalized and some ad-hoc, some self-consciously political and some avowedly a-political. In assessing the effects of leadership dispersal, the book argues that understanding how policies are shaped in a democracy requires balancing the usual person-centered approach with one that is more contextual, institutional, and relational. The public leadership role of people in business, the media, non-governmental organizations, bureaucracy, law, show-business and many other areas are instructively investigated to enhance our appreciation of the complexity of democratic political systems and to allow us to assess the effects, both good and ill, of democratic leadership dispersal.
About the Author
John Kane is Professor of Politics and Public Policy and Deputy Director of the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University in Australia. His research interests include political theory, political leadership, foreign policy and public management. He is the author of numerous articles in books and international journals, co-editor of
Rethinking Australian Citizenship and
Dissident Democrats, and author of
The Politics of Moral Capital and
Between Virtue and Power.
Haig Patapan is Professor of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University in Australia. His research interests include political theory, political leadership and democratic governance. He is the author of Judging Democracy and Machiavelli in Love, and coeditor of Globalization and Equality, Westminster Legacies , and most recently, Dissident Democrats.
Paul 't Hart is Professor of Political Science at Australian National University and Professor of Public Administration at Utrecht University. His research interests include public leadership, political psychology, crisis management, and policy analysis. He has (co)authored or (co)edited 25 books, including Groupthink in Government, Beyond Groupthink, Success and Failure in Public Governance, The Politics of Crisis Management, and Governing After Crisis.
Table of Contents
1. Dispersed Democratic Leadership,
John Kane, Haig Patapan, and Paul 't Hart2. Evolving Executive Authority in Anglo-American Democracy: Coping with Leadership Dispersal, Erwin C. Hargrove
3. Incomplete Empowerment: Female Cabinet Ministers in Anglo-American Systems, Patricia Lee Sykes
4. Parliamentary Oppositional Leadership, John Uhr
5. Populist Leadership, Jos de Beus
6. Monarchy, Political Leadership, and Democracy: On the Importance of Neutral Institutions, Douwe Jan Elzinga
7. The Democratic Legitimacy of Bureaucratic Leadership, John Kane and Haig Patapan
8. Judicial Leadership, Mark Tushnet
9. Leadership in News Institutions, Michael Schudson
10. The Challenges of Business Leadership: CEOs and the Case of the Business Council of Australia, Stephen Bell
11. The Contingencies of Non-Profit Leadership, Hillel Schmid
12. Leadership of the Modern University, Glyn Davis and Geoff Sharrock
13. Leadership of International Organizations, Bertjan Verbeek
14. Leadership by the Famous: Celebrity as Political Capital, Paul 't Hart and Karen Tindall
15. Life after Political Death: The Fate of Leaders after Leaving High Office, John Keane
16. Dispersed Democratic Leadership Revisited, John Kane, Haig Patapan, and Paul 't Hart