Dispersed Democratic Leadership: Origins, Dynamics, and Implications - Hardcover

This book examines both the scope and consequences of the dispersal of the leadership role in democratic societies, a topic that has been relatively neglected by a political science literature dominated by studies of executive power. Individual chapters investigate the many loci of leadership found in modern democracies, some ancient and some newly emergent, some institutionalised and some ad-hoc, some self-consciously political and some avowedly a-political. In assessing the effects of leadership dispersal, the book argues that understanding how policies are shaped in a democracy requires balancing the usual person-centred approach with one that is more contextual, institutional, and relational. The public leadership role of people in business, the media, non-governmental organisations, bureaucracy, law, show-business and many other areas are instructively investigated to enhance our appreciation of the complexity of democratic political systems and to allow us to assess the effects, both good and ill, of democratic leadership dispersal.

John Kane is Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy and Deputy Director of the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University, Australia. His research interests include political theory, political leadership, foreign policy and public management. He is the author of numerous articles in books and international journals, co-editor of Rethinking Australian Citizenship (Cambridge UP) and Dissident Democrats: The Challenge of Democratic Leadership in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan), and author of The Politics of Moral Capital (Cambridge UP) and Between Virtue and Power: The Persistent Moral Dilemma of US Foreign Policy (Yale UP). Haig Patapan is Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia. His research interests include political theory, political leadership and democratic governance. He is the author of Judging Democracy (Cambridge UP; 2000) and Machiavelli in Love: the Modern Politics of Love and Fear (Lexington; 2006); and coeditor of Globalization and Equality (Routledge; 2004); Westminster Legacies: Democracy and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific (UNSW Press; 2005); and most recently, Dissident Democrats: the Challenge of Democratic Leadership in Asia (Palgrave; 2008). Paul 't Hart is professor of political science at Australian National University and professor of public administration at Utrecht University. His research interests include public leadership, political psychology, crisis management, and policy analysis. He has (co)authored or (co)edited 25 books, including Groupthink in Government (Johns Hopkins UP 1994), Beyond Groupthink (Michigan UP 1997), Success and Failure in Public Governance (Elgar 2001), The Politics of Crisis Management (Cambridge Up 2005) and Governing After Crisis (Cambridge UP 2005).