Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T22:30:16.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Members versus Experts: The Perceptions of Party Leadership Styles in New Democracies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Sergiu Gherghina
Sergiu Gherghina*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, School of Social and Political Sciences, Room 1206, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow, GlasgowG12 8RT, UK. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Party leaders are highly relevant for contemporary political arenas. Their leadership styles have been often investigated relative to their behaviour and attitudes, but rarely through the lenses of those who observe them closely. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature and compares the ways in which party members and experts evaluate leaders on the transactional–transformational continuum. It uses individual-level data from a survey conducted in 2018 with a modified version of the MLQ. The analysis focuses on eight parliamentary parties in Romania and Bulgaria, covering 19 party leaders and 33 terms over a period of 15 years (2004–2018). The results indicate important differences in the assessment of party leaders, with members having more heterogeneous opinions and seeing them more transformational in comparison to experts.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 810 - 825
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aarts, K, Blais, A and Schmitt, H (eds) (2011) Political Leaders and Democratic Elections. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alimo-Metcalfe, B and Alban-Metcalfe, RJ (2001) The development of a new Transformational Leadership Questionnaire. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 74(1), 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avolio, BJ (1999) Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Avolio, BJ, Bass, BM and Jung, DI (1999) Re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 72(4), 441–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, BM (1985) Leadership and Performance beyond Expectations. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Bass, BM and Avolio, BJ (1990) Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Bass, BM and Avolio, BJ (1997) Full Range Leadership Development: Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Mind Garden.Google Scholar
Bielasiak, J (1997) Substance and process in the development of party systems of East Central Europe. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 30(1), 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittner, A (2011) Platform or Personality? The Role of Party Leaders in Elections. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blondel, J and Thiébault, J-L (2010) Political Leadership, Parties and Citizens: The Personalisation of Leadership. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bolleyer, N and Bytzek, E (2017) New party performance after breakthrough party origin, building and leadership. Party Politics 23(6), 772–782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruter, M and Harrison, S (2009) Tomorrow’s leaders? Comparative Political Studies 42(10), 1259–1290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budge, I (2000) Expert judgements of party policy positions: uses and limitations in political research. European Journal of Political Research 37(1), 103–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, J (1978) Leadership, New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Carless, SA, Wearing, AJ and Mann, L (2000) A short measure of transformational leadership. Journal of Business and Psychology 14(3), 389–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carty, RK (2004) Parties as franchise systems: the stratarchical organizational imperative. Party Politics 10(1), 5–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cross, WP and Katz, RS (eds) (2013) The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cross, W and Pilet, J-B (eds) (2016) The Politics of Party Leadership: A Cross-National Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dalton, RJ and Wattenberg, MP (eds) (2000) Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dowding, KM and Dumont, P (eds) (2014) The Selection of Ministers around the World. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duverger, M (1954) Political Parties: Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State. London: Lowe and Brydone.Google Scholar
Elgie, R (1995) Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enyedi, Z and Linek, L (2008) Searching for the right organization: ideology and party structure in East-Central Europe. Party Politics 14(4), 455–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gherghina, S (2014) Party Organization and Electoral Volatility in Central and Eastern Europe: Enhancing Voter Loyalty. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gherghina, S, Iancu, A and Soare, S (eds) (2018) Party Members and their Importance in Non-EU Countries. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gherghina, S and von dem Berge, B (2017) When Europeanisation meets organisation: enhancing the rights of party members in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of European Integration 40(2), 209–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldsmith, M and Larsen, H (2004) Local political leadership: Nordic style. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28(1), 121–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunther, R and Diamond, L (2003) Species of political parties: a new typology. Party Politics 9(2), 167–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harmel, R and Janda, K (1994) An integrated theory of party goals and party change. Journal of Theoretical Politics 6(3), 259–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazan, RY and Rahat, G (2010) Democracy within Parties. Candidate Selection Methods and their Political Consequences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helms, L (ed.) (2012) Comparative Political Leadership. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaarbo, J and Hermann, MG (1998) Leadership styles of prime ministers: how individual differences affect the foreign policymaking process. The Leadership Quarterly 9(3), 243–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, RS and Mair, P (1995) Changing models of party organization and party democracy: the emergence of the cartel party. Party Politics 1(1), 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, RS, Mair, P, Bardi, L., … Widfeldt, A (1992) The membership of political parties in European democracies, 1960-1990. European Journal of Political Research 22(3), 329–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopecký, P (1995) Developing party organizations in East-Central Europe: what type of party is likely to emerge? Party Politics 1(4), 515–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhnert, KW and Lewis, P (1987) Transactional and transformational leadership: a constructive/developmental analysis. The Academy of Management Review 12(4), 648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maestas, C (2018) Expert surveys as a measurement tool: challenges and new frontiers. In Atkeson, LR and Alvarez, RM (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Polling and Survey Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 583–608.Google Scholar
Marks, G, Hooghe, L, Steenbergen, MR and Bakker, R (2007) Crossvalidating data on arty positioning on European integration. Electoral Studies 26(1), 23–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, A and Cowley, P (1999) Ambassadors in the community? Labour party members in society. Politics 19(2), 89–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, MA and Booker, JM (1991) Eliciting and Analyzing Expert Judgment: A Practical Guide. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Neumann, S (ed.) (1956) Modern Political Parties. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Norris, P (1997) Passages to Power: Legislative Recruitment in Advanced Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1086/210170.Google Scholar
Norris, P (2000) A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panebianco, A (1988) Political Parties: Organization and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pilet, J-B and Cross, W (eds) (2014) The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plasser, F and Plasser, G (2002) Global Political Campaigning. A Worldwide Analysis of Campaign Professionals and their Practices. Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar
Poguntke, T (2002) Party organizational linkage: parties without firm social roots? In Luther, KR and Muller-Rommel, F (eds), Political Parties in the New Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 43–62.Google Scholar
Poguntke, T and Webb, P (eds) (2005) The Presidentialization of Politics: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Post, JM (2004) Leaders and their Followers in a Dangerous World: The Psychology of Political Behavior. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rahat, G and Sheafer, T (2007) The personalization(s) of politics: Israel, 1949–2003. Political Communication 24(1), 65–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandri, G, Seddone, A and Venturino, F (eds) (2015) Party Primaries in Comparative Perspective. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Scarrow, S (2015) Beyond Party Members. Changing Approaches to Partisan Mobilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scarrow, S, Webb, P and Farrell, D (2000) From social integration to electoral contestation: the changing distribution of power within political parties. In Dalton, RJ and Wattenberg, MP (eds), Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 129–153.Google Scholar
Seyd, P and Whiteley, P (1992) Labour’s Grass Roots: The Politics of Party Membership. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Seyd, P and Whiteley, P (2004) British party members. Party Politics 10(4), 355–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steenbergen, MR and Marks, G (2007) Evaluating expert judgments. European Journal of Political Research 46(3), 347–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strömbäck, J (2007) Political marketing and professionalized campaigning. Journal of Political Marketing 6(2/3), 49–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Biezen, I (2003) Political Parties in New Democracies, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Biezen, I, Mair, P and Poguntke, T (2012) Going, going, … gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe. European Journal of Political Research 51(1), 24–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Haute, E and Gauja, A (2015) Party Members and Activists. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Holsteyn, J and Koole, R (2009) Is it true what they say? Dutch party members and their opinion on internal party democracy. Paper Presented at the ECPR Joint Session of Workshops, Lisbon.Google Scholar
Widfeldt, A (1999) Losing touch? The political representativeness of Swedish parties, 1985–1994. Scandinavian Political Studies 22(4), 307–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar