Leadership Style of Democracy and Authoritarianism: Individual Differences in Personality, Rhetoric, and Style of Political Actors at the Elite Level and Their Support for democracy

This paper explores the question whether it is possible to identify “democratic” and “authoritarian” leaders based on personality, cognition, rhetoric and style. Are effective negotiators in support of democracy and distrusting personalities not? What about charismatic personalities and their appeal to audiences? Does democracy profit from a leader driven by an affiliation motive rather than a power motive? Is a simple style with excessive use of metaphor and hyperbole a threat to democracy because of its emotive appeal? This paper discusses several leadership cases (Erdogan, Merkel, Rutte, …) in order to explore the assessment of differences in personality, rhetoric, and style for politicians in relation to their support of democracy. Keywords: democratic leaders, authoritarian leaders, rhetorical and metaphor analysis, Immelman profiling method, political personality. References De Landtsheer Christ'l (2010). Crisis style or radical rhetoric? The speech by Dyab Abou Jahjah, leader of The Arab European League. In: Cognitive linguistics in critical discourse analysis : application and theory / Hart, Christopher [edit.]; e.a. Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars, 2010, p. 57-80. Poulain Ann-Sophie, De Landtsheer Christ'l, Kalkhoven Lieuwe (2014). The Arabic spring in the eyes of Chinese political leaders : a critical discourse analysis of Chinese political rhetoric. Politics, culture & socialization, 5:1(2014), p. 82-100. Middelhoff Jurriaan, Schijvenaars P., De Landtsheer Christ'l (2016). Political personality and complex decision-making : the psychological profile and leadership style of Angela Merkel, the world's most powerful woman. In: Complex political decision-making : leadership, legitimacy and communication / Bursens, Peter [edit.]; e.a. - London, Routledge, p. 121-144