What It Takes to Be a Leader: Leadership and Charisma in a Citizen-Candidate Model

Binyamin Berdugo ()
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Binyamin Berdugo: BGU

No 612, Working Papers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper analyses leadership and charisma within the framework of social choice. In societies that lack formal institutional authorities, the power of leaders to coerce is limited. Under such conditions we find that social outcomes will depend not only on policy preferences but also on individuals' abilities to transform voluntary efforts into some communal public good. The paper has three central results: (1) Leaders might credibly compromise on policies they favor in order to elicit more social efforts, while society members might be willing to compromise on favorable policies in order to gain better leaders. (2) Under imperfect information regarding individuals' abilities, social choice might be biased toward less competent but more charismatic leaders. (3) Lesscompetent, more charismatic leaders can achieve more in terms of social goals than competent non-charismatic ones.

Keywords: Leadership; Charisma; Electoral Competition; Candidates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 D72 H4 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bgu:wpaper:0612

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