Synopses & Reviews
This book focuses on the leadership performances of the political chief executives in the United States, Britain and Germany since the end of the Second World War. Drawing on a wide range of material, Ludger Helms provides a genuinely comparative perspective on the conditions and manifestations of executive leadership in three of the world's largest established democracies.
Synopsis
How have the American presidency, the British premiership and the German chancellorship changed over the last half-century? Has there been convergence or divergence in the development of political leadership in the United States and in the two largest democracies of Western Europe? And what difference can individual leaders make in an ever-more complex political environment? Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors addresses these questions by looking at the leadership performance of more than two dozen American presidents, British prime ministers and German chancellors of the post-1945 period. In so doing, it offers a unique perspective on the nature of executive leadership in Western democracies that takes into account both the international and the historical dimension of comparison.
About the Author
Ludger Helms is Heisenberg Fellow and Academic Visitor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Table of Contents
PART I: INTRODUCTION * Studying Executive Leadership * PART II: PATTERNS OF CORE EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP * The United States: Variations of Presidential Predominance * Britain: Prime Ministers, Cabinets, and the Struggle for Supremacy * Germany: Chancellor Dominance and Coalition Rule * PART III: EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE WIDER POLITICAL PROCESS * The United States: Providing Leadership in an 'Anti-Leadership Environment' * Britain: Executive Leadership from the Top * Germany: Governing a 'Semi-sovereign' State * PART IV: CONCLUSION * Making Sense of Complexity: Comparative Perspectives and Conclusions * References