Populist leadership and charisma

William Mazzarella

Chapter 24 in Research Handbook on Populism, 2024, pp 291-302 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Research on populist leadership has brought back the question of charisma. What is it? Can it be defined? Is it good or is it bad? In this chapter, I resist both the definitional and the normative imperatives, and suggest instead that what we call ‘charisma’ points us toward a foundational, latent dimension of social and political life. I focus especially on two aspects of this latent dimension, both of them part of Max Weber’s canonical discussion of charisma: its ‘anti-economic’ and its always emergent character. Drawing on insights from sociology, political theory and psychoanalysis, I argue that the problem of charisma requires us to attend to the sorts of political enjoyments that liberal theory too quickly dismisses as pathological.

Keywords: Politics and Public Policy Research Methods; Sociology and Social Policy; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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