Charisma, Populism and Plebiscitary Leadership

Abstract

In contrast to the 20th century which can be featured by enduring political cleavages, party democracy and parliamentarism, the Millennium opened an era which is marked by the dealignment and the growth of volatility in electoral behaviour, the decline of political parties, increasing personalization and mediatisation of politics and the emergence of identity politics and populism. In the past two decades, radical and populist parties, movements and politicians in Western democracies have shifted from marginality to mainstream. The concern about the deconsolidation of (liberal) democracy, which has characterized the literature dealing with new democracies in East and Central Europe and Latin America, has by now extended to the core states of the Western World (Fukuyama 2016; Foa and Mounk 2016; 2017). This panel focuses on the emergence of the new form and dynamics of leadership and the new type of leaders, like populist and charismatic leaders. To which extent are they different from the leadership type of the previous era? How have the interaction patterns and charismatic relationship between leaders and followers (Weber 1978; Gardner and Avolio 1998; cf. McDonnell 2016) changed under the influence of populism? How has populism as political style, performance or storytelling (Canovan 2001; Casullo 2019; Moffitt 2016, Weyland 2001) transformed political leaders’ messages, decisions and actions and citizens’ expectations of leadership and its outcome? How can the phenomenon of populism be understood from the perspective of leadership? The panel also addresses the impact of the emergence of new forms of political leadership and the new political conditions on (liberal) democracies. To which extent have the new leadership types of ‘Millennial decades’ changed the nature of democracy? The panel discusses the role and impact of leaders in populist democracy (Pappas 2014), in hybrid regimes (Wigell 2008; Levitsky and Way 2010) and in plebiscitary leader democracy (Green 2010; Körösényi 2005; 2019). Both theoretical and empirical papers (comparative works or single country case studies) are welcome.

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