Abstract
A series of crises and traumatic events, such as the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 global financial crisis, seem to have influenced the environment within which modern political leaders act. We explore the scholarly literature on political leadership and crisis since 2008 to evaluate what sorts of questions are being engaged, and identify some new lines of inquiry. We find several scholars are contributing much insight from the perspective of leadership and crisis management. Several analysts are investigating the politics of crisis from a decentralist perspective, focusing on local leadership in response to challenging events. As well, studying how citizens interpret, respond to, or resist leaders’ signals is a developing area of inquiry. While our study reveals some debate about the nature of crisis, and whether the context has changed significantly, most of the scholarship reviewed here holds modern politicians face large challenges in exercising leadership within precarious contexts.
Highlights
The last several years have witnessed a welcome resurgence in the analysis of political leaders and the exercise of leadership
This paper aims to trace the development of the literature concerning political leadership and crisis in the post-global financial crisis (GFC) era, note its merits and limitations, and mark some of the more promising lines of inquiry
To survey how political leadership is being studied since 2008, we identified recent work published from January of 2009 to December of 2015
Summary
The last several years have witnessed a welcome resurgence in the analysis of political leaders and the exercise of leadership. From studies of governance occurring in small municipalities to agency analyses within supranational structures, many new works are reinvigorating this research area. The literature reaches back to the earliest period of recorded history because, since the beginnings of social life, people have taken leadership roles within groups. While the phenomenon of leadership always is present in societies, we know that how leaders lead is changeable. Our understanding of leadership and its evaluation necessarily is grounded in our times and our context. The socio-economic environment within which people lead is a prime determinant of how leaders must act to be effective, and how we adjudicate effective leadership
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