The Comparative Analysis of Political Leadership

Abstract

The study of political leadership appears to be emerging field of political science in the United States after a long period of neglect.1 Only a decade or so ago, comparative studies of the subject by American authors could be served up on a half shelf in most college libraries, and undergraduate courses and texts gave it relatively scant attention. Today, in contrast, the interested student is confronted by a virtual embarrassment of riches; elite studies, psycho-biographies, and what have you provide a rich and variegated fare. The problem for the potential consumer is no longer product scarcity, but choice among an abundance of products bearing the same or similar labels.2 Whether such growth is all to the good and indicative of real progress in the field, or whether it represents, at best, no more than pouring various mixtures of old wine into new bottles with fancy designations is a matter of some dispute.