A politician’s ability to practice political leadership has always played a major role, but today’s political leadership is widely exposed and depended on the public’s voice and reactions to such an extend with mass media both as tool and mediator as never seen before. Consideration to the ethical dimension in political leadership and taking a stand for own values has therefore become more than ever important for a political leader not just to be aware of men also to use in public. A part of this awareness has to do with religious and cultural values. How important is these two issues and which role do they play in practicing political leadership? By combining the qualitative method of describing and investigating President Donald Trump's religious and cultural background as a specific example and then using the quantitative method in the form of a relevant minor questionnaire, I state that my hypothesis "certainly plays religious and cultural background a certain role in political ethical leadership" applies, and is more important than one might imagine

This study looks into the role of the institution of traditional leadership in post-apartheid South Africa. It seeks to critically engage the debate on how to locate the institution within the new politico-constitutional framework. This is done with the main objective of proposing an altemative to the current state of affairs vis-à-vis traditional leadership and governance in South Africa. In order to clear the ground, the study first deals with the important question of democracy in relation to the institution of traditional leadership. In this regard, the study unearthed that the institution of traditional leadership is fundamentally undemocratic in character, as it is largely based on heredity and devoid of principles of democracy such as equality, accountability, etc. In order to put matters into perspective the study also delves into the history of the institution of traditional leadership with the aim of getting to the role that traditional leaders played in various epochs of South Africa's political development. This investigation reveals that the denting of the integrity of the institution of traditional leadership began with the advent of colonialism and worsened by successive apartheid regimes. It is at these stages of development that the institution was subordinated to a higher authority that sought to use the institution as an instrument of domination and oppression of the black majority. Considering this role, it would seem that the place that the space that the institution occupies in the post-apartheid South African governance framework is a compromise. The institution plays an advisory role at all levels of government - with their houses in both national and provincial legislatures, whilst traditional leaders sit as ex-officio members on local councils. However, traditional leaders fiercely contest this position as, in their view, this limits their powers. The main argument of this study is that for traditional leaders to be given an advisory role in the current and future governance framework of the country is a step in the right direction, as that serves to insulate the institution from active politics. For that reason, the study recommends that the institution of traditional leadership should occupy a cultural space in society - meaning that it should be responsible for the preservation of African customs and culture. This, therefore, means that the institution is better-placed to advise government on cultural and customary aspects of development. Whilst playing this role, the institution of traditional leadership should also -be brought into line with democratic ways of governance.

This dissertation is comprised of three papers, which aim to improve our knowledge of how democracy and legislature size matter for ethnic representation among political leaders. The first paper introduces the Global Leadership Project (GLP), which provides the first dataset to offer biographical information on an array of leaders (i.e. members of the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and other elites) around the world. Personal characteristics and identities of political leaders influence their behavior in elective office, and thus carry implications for the course of politics and policy. The GLP encompasses 145 nation-states and 38,085 leaders, each of whom is coded along 31 parameters, producing approximately 1.1 million data points in a cross-sectional format centered on 2010-13. This data allows comparison of the demographic characteristics (i.e. gender balance, age, ethnicity, education, languages spoken, education, and tenure) of leaders within countries, across countries, and across regions. The second paper examines the causal mechanism of how democratization increases ethnic descriptive representation through a longitudinal case study of Kurdish representation in the Turkish parliament from 1920 until 2011. It argues that ethnic descriptive representation increases in a competitive democracy because out-parties collaborate with ethnic groups to gain electoral advantage over their rivals. In Turkey, the collaboration of emerging out-party actors with the Kurds explains the rise of Kurdish descriptive representation. Through process tracing, this paper examines this collaboration, explaining the precarious increase in Kurdish descriptive representation in Turkish political history. The third paper argues that larger legislatures foster greater ethnic descriptive representation regardless of regime type. Theoretically, larger legislatures provide more "room" to pay off key elites, improve the inclusion of disadvantaged groups by diminishing the value of a seat, and are less subject to stochastic features that might upset descriptive representation. The argument is tested with a series of cross-national research designs drawing on the GLP database. A new disproportionality index of Ethnic Representation is created with the aggregated data at the national level. The argument is also tested with Two-Stage Least Squares analysis where the variation in population size is taken as an instrument of legislative size. / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

This thesis documents and examines Occupy Portland's organizational structure and the impact of this structure on the leadership roles of participants. Interviews with key activists and participant observation reveal that the ideologically influenced horizontal organization employed by the movement disrupts the emergence of centralized authority and charismatic leadership. This, in turn, encourages the rise of a "distributed leadership" comprised of multiple, task driven leaders. It finds that these task-oriented leaders within Occupy Portland tend to fulfill three specific leadership roles; the facilitation of process, the construction of movement structures, and the organization of actions. This study provides an exploration of conceptualizing leaders in a non-hierarchical, decentralized, consensus-based decision-making social movement and works to give needed expansion to the literature on social movement leadership.

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The role of gender on international security has received a great deal of attention. In crucial political arenas, women are conspicuously absent, and this lack of representation permits male interests to take precedence. In 2017, the global average percentage of women in parliament was only 23.3%, a gain of 6.5% over the previous decade. Does the occurrence of violent conflict change when women become leaders or when their participation in parliament increases? There is a varied range of explanations that supports or contradicts the assertion that women in leadership positions lead to less conflict and war. This research aims to evaluate the conduct of female leaders during crises. It is impossible to prove that female pacifism creates a less conflicted system. However, it does contribute to the notion that a women-only leadership would be just as conflicted as the existing patriarchal institutions, albeit in a different manner. The study conducted a desk study research method. It aimed to answer specific questions related to primary research. Secondary research was conducted by looking at already existing secondary data. The obtained data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that women may have distinct gender values than males due to their different social positions. Women leaders must overcome sex role stereotypes. Women in influential positions may use their experiences as voters and members of society in their policy choices as leaders. The widest gender disparity occurs between men and women in the intellectual core of politics (foreign affairs). This has driven women to favor other paths over foreign policy and war, so we may anticipate female leaders in powerful positions to behave differently than males. / Master of Arts / Gender and its influence on international relations has gained interest worldwide. Notably, women today are few in the political scene. Consequently, male interests are dominant. For example, the number of female parliamentarians has increased slightly over the last few decades. Nevertheless, whether women leaders result in less conflict and war remains a question. This thesis evaluates the conduct of women leaders during conflict and war. According to the findings, the answer as to whether women leaders cause less conflict and war is inconclusive. In fact, just like male leaders, women leaders are just as likely to result in more conflict and war. However, women leaders are faced with specific sex-role stereotypes. Moreover, women leaders are more likely to address social issues based on their experiences. These factors may influence female leaders to behave differently than men.

Studies of leadership have examined the independent effects of characteristic prototypicality and level of previous experience on the perceptions of a person's leadership ability. The present study examines the joint influence of characteristic prototypicality and previous experience on the perceptions of leadership ability. Subjects received vignettes describing Presidential "candidates" and rated the candidates' leadership abilities. There was a significant gender by experience by civics knowledge interaction for the subjects' overall impression of the candidate (favorability) and the candidate's likelihood of success as president, and for rating 1 (a composite rating of six specific abilities). In the low experience condition, high knowledge females rated more leniently than did high knowledge males, while low knowledge females rated more severely than did low knowledge males. There was a significant prototypicality by civics knowledge interaction for favorability and rating 1 and rating 2 (a composite rating of three specific abilities). For favorability, high knowledge subjects rated prototypic and antiprototypic candidates more severely and candidates in the neutral and no prototypicality information more leniently than did low knowledge subjects. Ratings 1 and 2 demonstrated an effect only in the no prototypicality information condition, where high knowledge subjects rated more leniently than did low knowledge subjects. Finally, there was a significant experience by civics knowledge interaction for favorability and likelihood of success. High knowledge subjects rated more leniently in the high experience and more severely in the low experience condition than did low knowledge subjects. Implications of the findings and future research are discussed. / Master of Science

This thesis examines the relationship between the political opposition and populism. The goal is to identify when, how, and under what circumstances an opposition to a populist leader affects change to the political system. A comparative historical analysis is employed as five case studies from South America are examined. The evidence presented in these case studies demonstrates that the political oppositions in each country were unsuccessful in affecting change to their respective political systems. They were unable to demobilize the support base that the populist leaders had created. Change came to the political systems in four out of the five case studies only when the populist leader's actions demobilized his support and not from the actions of the opposition. / by Morgan Alissa Weiss. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation analyses the relationship between civil society and political leadership within the context of Zimbabwe’s protracted social conflict, particularly through the lens of land policy. Through the use of strategic informants, it yields important insights into the origins, form and impact of political leadership and civil society in a way that will expose the dynamics of elite and grassroots mobilisation and the political context in which land policy is either made or obstructed. Specifically, this dissertation examines two research questions. First, if political leadership is not representative of the citizenry, is land policy more likely to engender overt conflict? Second, if civil society has an autonomous role in the public sphere, is land policy more likely to benefit citizens? This dissertation also confronts an emerging empirical problem: the absence of descriptive data in regards to how civil society and political leadership have engaged in reforming land policy in Zimbabwe during the period of transition from 2008 to 2013. By measuring representation and autonomy – indicators of human needs satisfaction– this dissertation traced each phase of the protracted social conflict as it both helped to create the conditions for a liberation model of representation while simultaneously further exacerbating protracted social conflict within Zimbabwe. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ontleed die verhouding tussen die burgerlike samelewing en politieke leierskap veral deur die lens van grondbeleid, binne die konteks van Zimbabwe se uitgerekte sosiale konflik. Dit het ten doel om belangrike insigte op te lewer in die oorsprong, vorm en impak van politieke leierskap en die burgerlike samelewing. Die word blootgestel in 'n manier wat die dinamika van die elite en mobilisering op grondvlak in ag neem soweel as die politieke konteks waarin grondbeleid óf gemaak is of belemmer word. Hierdie tesis konfronteer ook 'n opkomende empiriese probleem: die afwesigheid van beskrywende data met betrekking tot die betrokkenheod van die burgerlike samelewing en politieke leierskap tydens die grondhervorming proses in Zimbabwe gedurende die tydperk van oorgang tussen 2008 en 2013. Deur die meting van verteenwoordiging en outonomie - aanwysers van menslike behoeftes bevrediging - word elke fase van die uitgerekte sosiale konflik ondersoek met betrekking tot hoe ‘n bevryding model van verteenwoordigheid beide gehelp het om die voorwaardes te skepvir die eindeiging van die PSC; maar terselfdertyd het dit ook die sosiale konflik in Zimbabwe verder uitgerek. !

The key to Reconstruction for both blacks and whites was black suffrage. On one hand this vote made possible the elevation of black political leaders to positions of prominence in the reorganization of the South after the Civil War. For southern whites, on the other hand, black participation in the Reconstruction governments discredited the positive accomplishments of those regimes and led to the evolution of a systematized white rejection of the black as a positive force in southern politics. For white contemporaries and subsequent historians, the black political leader became the exemplar of all that was reprehensible about the period. Stereotyped patterns, developed to eliminate black influence, prevented any examination of the actual role played by these men in the reconstruction process. This study is partially a synthesis of recent scholarly research on specific aspects of the black political role and the careers of individual political leaders. Additional research included examination of a number of manuscript collections in the Library of Congress and the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, state and federal government documents, and contemporary newspapers. On the basis of all these sources, this study evaluates the nature of black political leadership and its impact on the reconstruction process in all the ten states which were subject to the provisions of congressional reconstruction legislation. The topic is developed chronologically, beginning with the status of blacks at the end of the Civil War and their search for identity as citizens. Black leadership emerged early in the various rallies and black conventions of 1865 and early 1866. With the passage in March 1867 of reconstruction legislation establishing black suffrage as the basis for restoration of the former Confederate states, black leaders played a crucial role in the development of the southern Republican party and the registration of black voters. Black influence reached its apex in the constitutional conventions and the subsequent ratification elections of 1868-1869. Blacks were elected to posts in the new state governments in varying numbers, but with increasing political sophistication began to demand a larger voice in Republican party councils and a larger share of public offices. Their resulting prominence fueled a white determination to eliminate the Republican governments which had allowed elevation of black politicians. This study of state political leadership is not a history of the black in the Republican party, nor is it a history of the black masses in Reconstruction. It does examine the role of black leaders and seeks to determine the nature and degree of their influence. The development of black leadership was one facet of building a southern Republican party, and in the tenuous coalition which made up that party the black inevitably became the weakest link because he was the most vulnerable. This study challenges a number of stereotypes. Southern Reconstruction was not a period of "black rule," as both historians hostile to the black leaders and those sympathetic to them have intimated. Nor was the black politician a passive tool to be manipulated at the will of whites. Strong disagreements among black leaders show the weakness of the traditional monolithic picture of black political action. Black leaders had considerable influence in some states and practically none in others. Total failure of black political leadership would have been welcomed by southern whites, but its successes were intolerable. This study traces the development of a leadership whose successes led to its destruction.