Party Leaders in Eastern Europe

Personality, Behavior and Consequences

Sergiu Gherghina

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030320249
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030320256
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores the relationship between the personality of political leaders, its interaction with top leadership positions and its impact on the respective parties' electoral performance and organization. It focuses on the less-investigated region of Eastern Europe and includes chapters on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. Each chapter compares and contrasts two party leaders with at least two terms in office between 1991 and 2019. The book applies systematically a common theoretical and methodological framework across leaders and countries, thus providing rich empirical evidence.

© The Author(s) 2020

S. Gherghina (ed.)Party Leaders in Eastern EuropePalgrave Studies in Political Psychologyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32025-6_1

Begin Abstract

1. Party Leaders in Eastern Europe: Traits, Behaviors and Consequences

Sergiu Gherghina¹

(1)

Department of Politics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

Sergiu Gherghina

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

Party leadersCharacter traitsElectoral performanceParty organization

End Abstract

Introduction

Party leaders are crucial actors for political decision-making, their parties and voters. Contemporary politics sees a decline in the centrality of political parties as groups intended to aggregate, articulate and represent different societal interests. This centrality of parties is being replaced by politicians who—through the general process of personalization—have become the main anchors of interpretation and evaluation in the political arena (Bennett, 2012; W. P. Cross, Katz, & Pruysers, 2018; Garzia, 2013; Karvonen, 2010; Langer, 2007; Passarelli, 2019; Poguntke & Webb, 2005; Rahat & Kenig, 2018). However, the general relevance of political leaders is not limited to “matter because politics matters” (Hartley & Benington, 2011, p. 204). Party leaders have become central drivers of electoral competitions in an unprecedented manner. Political parties grow less reliant on their organizational basis and more on the leadership figures. Whether it is the case of new parties, fringe parties, or large and well-established parties, leaders continue to rise to prominence (Blondel & Thiebault, 2009; Bolleyer & Bytzek, 2017; W. P. Cross et al., 2018; Poguntke & Webb, 2005; Rahat & Sheafer, 2007).

The role of leadership expands beyond electoral politics where leaders occupy the center stage and increase the appeal of their parties through various means (Aarts, Blais, & Schmitt, 2011; Bittner, 2011; Helms, 2012). Within a context of decreasing electoral turnout, the party supporters represent the essential precondition of winning elections and surviving multiple electoral cycles. That is why the approach of leaders in managing their parties has much wider relevance for their organizational survival (Blondel & Thiebault, 2009; Chiru & Gherghina, 2012; W. Cross & Pilet, 2016; Langer, 2011). The leadership style matters both in relation to the voters, who get mobilized and this is reflected in the share of votes, and in relationship to the party organization by organizing the internal structures, boosting membership or bringing organizations to life in a more general sense. In this context, the leadership style allows us to better understand the life of parties and to clearly identify their goals, such as the mobilization of voters, boosting party membership, developing the party organization etc.

The consequences of party leaders for state and society can be best understood through the study of their characteristics and behaviors in office. They do not operate in a vacuum but in an environment in which their values and personality traits as well as the perception of others and their expectations toward their actions are highly influential. The ways in which leaders act are driven by a series of factors ranging from character traits to institutional pressure. In spite of extensive research devoted separately to personality and leadership styles, leaders’ actions and the consequences they produce, little attention had been paid to the relationship between these three variables. To date, the few studies addressing this relationship were focused on influential political leaders and investigated their relationships with followers and analyzed their time in office as prime ministers or country presidents (Bass, 1990; Greenstein, 2009; Kavanagh, 1974; Post, 2004; Steinberg, 2008). Although many of these political leaders were also heads of parties, their characteristics and behaviors as party leaders were often overlooked. Moreover, since many analyses used a single-case study approach, with emphasis on one leader and several contextual explanations, there are only isolated comparisons between political leaders. Finally, most research of leadership styles focused either on established democracies or on authoritarian countries. They did not consider newly emerged democracies or transition countries although these two categories form an important share of the global states.

Goals of the Book, Theory and Hypotheses

This book seeks to fill these gaps in the literature and analyzes the relationship between party leaders’ personality traits, behaviors and general consequences for their parties. The volume has a three-fold goal:

1. 1.
   To describe and compare the personality traits and associated behavior of party leaders.
2. 2.
   To assess the changes in leaders’ personality traits during their time in office.
3. 3.
   To identify the impact of leaders’ traits on their parties’ electoral performance and organization.

When compared to other studies on leadership, this book has a few unique features: the explicit focus on the position of party leader rather than high political office at national level, the existence of a common theoretical and methodological framework applied systematically across leaders and countries, the emphasis on potential change during the term in office and the attempt to explain that change, and the focus on the less-investigated region of Eastern Europe characterized by a mix of new democracies and transition countries. To begin with, let us consider the basic theoretical elements and dimensions for analysis that lie at the core of this book.

Theoretical Foundations

From management and leadership studies to research into organizational structures and functions, research into styles of leadership has been at the forefront of a wide range of disciplines for decades. Specific investigation into political leadership is a relative latecomer to this field even though some of the most prominent analytical approaches (Blondel, 1987) have started off by looking at political leaders. This book relies on three different strands of literature to come up with several analytical dimensions and formulate testable hypotheses regarding the effect of leadership traits on party electoral performance and organization.

To begin with, the trait theories and research are a useful starting point. The study of leadership traits is not new and its origins go back to the 1930s and 1940s when several works sought to identify individual characteristics that distinguish leaders from non-leaders. While most studies in that period were descriptive and lacked theory, Stogdill (1948) made a first step in the direction of theoretical notions by looking at the interaction between traits and the situations leaders faced. The trait paradigm gradually developed and several decades later research analyzed how specific traits were associated with or could predict their behaviors (Davis-Blake & Pfeffer, 1989; House, Shane, & Herold, 1996). In line with these specific traits, the Leaders Motive Profile (LMP) theory was developed and argued that leader effectiveness is associated with high desire to acquire status and have an impact on others (power motivation), high concern for the moral exercise of power and power motivation greater than affiliative motivation (House et al., 1996; McClelland, 1975, 1985; Winter, 1978). In more recent studies, the principles of the LMP theory are articulated in the form of the leaders’ need for power (Cottam, Mastors, Preston, & Dietz, 2015).

In parallel, the Charismatic Leadership Theory emphasized the existence of several traits such as self-confidence, strong motivation for influence, and strong conviction for the moral correctness of beliefs to be conducive to charisma and effectiveness (House, 1991). Leaders with such traits are likely to produce change in the organization and research showed that this is effectively achieved (Hogan, Curphy, & Hogan, 1994) also when these traits are combined with the power motivation from the LMP theory (House, 1991). In addition, leader flexibility and social sensitivity are traits tha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Party Leaders in Eastern Europe: Traits, Behaviors and Consequences
• 2. ‘Deviating’ Party Leadership Strategies in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Comparison of Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović
• 3. The Fireman’s Ball in Bulgaria? A Comparison Between Sergey Stanishev and Boyko Borisov
• 4. Party Leaders in Croatia: Comparing Ivo Sanader and Zoran Milanović
• 5. From Ideology to Interest-Driven Politics: Václav Klaus, Andrej Babiš and Two Eras of Party Leadership in the Czech Republic
• 6. Different Styles, Similar Paths: Party Leadership in Georgia
• 7. Strong Personalities’ Impact on Hungarian Party Politics: Viktor Orbán and Gábor Vona
• 8. A Comparison of Two Polish Party Leaders: Jarosław Kaczyński and Donald Tusk
• 9. Party Leaders in Romania: Designated Successors or Tactical Players?
• 10. Rising Expectations and Centralizing Power: Party Leaders in Serbia
• 11. The Rise and Sustainability of Party Leaders in Slovakia: Robert Fico and Mikuláš Dzurinda
• 12. Conclusion: An Aggregate Comparison of Party Leaders in Eastern Europe
• Back Matter