ATS3903 Leaders, power and politics

Leadership is indispensable to politics. Yet leadership is a problematic concept within liberal democracies that have traditionally set out to devolve authority and check against concentrations of power. This unit explores political leadership within liberal democracies using Australia (prime ministers) and the United States (presidents) as its primary empirical reference points. It examines how political leadership has been theorised from classical to contemporary times, including the application of psychology to understand the motivations and classify the behavioural repertoires of leaders. The unit considers how leaders are constrained by context ('the times') and institutional settings. It asks whether leaders make history or are prisoners of it and why certain leaders become associated with transformative change. The unit also explores two of the fundamental functions of political leaders: persuasion and decision-making. It investigates whether it is possible to identify the qualities of successful political leadership. Finally, the unit takes stock of political leadership in the early twenty-first century: an era in which leaders have never seemed more central to politics and yet the challenges of leadership so great. Students will be given the opportunity to choose a leader on which to focus to explore the themes addressed in the unit.