Leadership Impact on Decision Making within the Framework of Political Governance in Latvia

This study analyzes the impact of leadership on decision making within the framework of political governance in Latvia. The study focuses on the State president, the official, who as specified in the Constitution is not politically responsible, but many scholars have emphasized Presidential political responsibility, being neutral from political parties in the political process, and who with knowledge, skills and abilities is able to influence the political agenda and decision-making. The study analyses the impact of presidential leadership on laws returned to the Parliament for repeat consideration. Thereby, it answers two questions: 1. whether the five State President’s from 1993-2017 in their written and reasoned requests to the Chairperson of the Parliament, requiring laws to be reconsidered, impact the decision-making? 2. whether the society is waiting for the political leader's impact, but the leader is unable to bring it in line with public expectations. Do written and reasoned requests have a correlation with public expectations? A cross-sectional descriptive design is used, describing and analysing the findings to make critical evaluation. Semi-structured elite interviews with five state presidents and fifteen experts-associates, chosen by purposive and snowball sampling method, are analysed using NVivo 11 qualitative data analysis software. Using quantitative statistical methods, a scatter plot is created to analyse and answer research questions. A list of approbated leadership skills is created from expert answers using Likert scale. This study might be useful choosing next Presidential candidates. It might be culturally adapted in other countries, making research results applicable from the local to the international context.