Hidden Treasure or Sinking Ship? Diagnosing the Study of Political Leadership

Abstract

The study of leadership leads a rather languishing life in the discipline of political science. In this article, we explore the literature on political leadership in order to 1) identify the obstacles that have prevented this literature from a more extensive dialogue with related fields in political science, and 2) explore whether this literature contains hidden treasures that could contribute to leadership-analyses in the discipline. We suggest that the tendency to characterize the study of leadership primarily as an art (rather than a science) might have prevented conversations with other sub-fields; however, we argue that the literature contains useful theoretical insights for the analysis of both broader societal transformations and specific political outcomes.