The paper tries to elaborate some possible consequences of a social constructivist epistemological standpoint for political leadership and democratic theory by combining theoretical considerations and empirical investigations. As epistemological basis I take Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concept of ’language games’, and F. R. Ankersmit’s notion of ’aesthetic politics’. Then I try to combine this epistemological basis with András Körösényi’s elaboration of ’leader democracy’. I also address the distinction between the normal state of affairs and crises, and the problem of ’relativism’, i.e. whether all interpretations are equal.
As an empirical contribution, I try to show by means of a qualitative discourse analysis, how two successive Hungarian prime ministers sought to interpret the 2008 global economic crisis, and thereby to shape the political situation itself. To summarize the analytic and normative consequences of my research, I attempt to re-think my theoretical assumptions in the light of the empirical findings.
