'I Don’t Claim to be a Perfect Leader': Discursive Constructions of Leadership in Political Discourse

Two fundamental dimensions of leadership have been identified from studies of voter perceptions of British political leaders: competence and responsiveness (Clarke et al., 2004; Stewart & Clarke, 1992). Although these dimensions were derived from leader ratings, they may also be understood as reflecting tacit assumptions about accepted codes of political practice, reflecting voter expectations about how good leaders should behave. Furthermore, the concept of leadership cannot be fully understood without acknowledging the integral role of what might be termed “followership”. Thus, in the majority of contexts, leadership is hardly ever a permanent role but one that needs to be renewed after a certain period of time. In a political context, given that members of a political party may withdraw their followership, leaders need to perform successfully in order to be re-elected. From the above analysis, it is proposed that leaders need to ensure continued support by “doing” competence and responsiveness, for example, by keeping promises, acting in a decisive and principled manner, listening to reason and not being arrogant. Furthermore, they need to do competence and responsiveness through talk. Accordingly, in this paper, a discursive analysis is presented of how politicians do competence and responsiveness through talk, illustrated by examples drawn from political speeches, broadcast interviews, and parliamentary questions. References Clarke, H.D., Sanders, D., Stewart, M.C., & Whiteley, P.F. (2004). Political Choice in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stewart, M.C. & Clarke, H.D. (1992). The (Un) importance of Party Leaders: Leader Images and Party Choice in the 1987 British Election. Journal of Politics 54 (2), 447-470.