Chapter 3 - Why Do Leaders Still Exist? Leadership and Followership

Summary

A central feature of human societies is the continued reliance on individual leaders as decision-makers, particularly at the national level. In the vast majority of cases throughout human history, in major societies these leaders have been male. Even in the age of the electronics revolution, when decision-making could potentially be through mass participation, the United States has moved closer to an imperial presidency and the leaders in China and India, the most populous countries in the world, are male and have become more dictatorial. The evolution of centralized individual male leadership is discussed in this chapter as arising from the development of a surplus and the emergence of private property. These developments led to wealth concentration and group-based inequalities, with the leader being a member of the power and wealth elite. Some animal groups practice collective decision-making, but for the most part decision-making in human societies continues to rely on individual (often older) male leaders.