Gordon Brown as prime minister: Political skills and leadership style

Abstract

Individual prime ministers’ personalities, leadership styles and political skills matter and make a difference. It is important to develop ways of understanding and analysing the components of prime-ministerial leadership and personal style and skills within a framework permitting comparison, generalisation and evaluation. The article argues that some of the most influential accounts of the US presidency should be explored to assess their potential for enhancing our understanding of British prime ministers and the premiership. Drawing upon Fred Greenstein's influential analysis of The Presidential Difference, the article evaluates Gordon Brown's leadership style and skills under six headings: (1) proficiency as a public communicator, (2) organisational capacity, (3) political skills, (4) policy vision, (5) cognitive style and (6) emotional intelligence. Overall, Brown can be seen as someone not well-equipped for the highest office, in terms of the key leadership abilities, characteristics and skills that Greenstein identifies. This does not mean that he was bound to fail and to go down to electoral defeat. But in the situation he and the Labour government were in after 2007, it made it very much harder to be successful.