Towards a Concept of Interactive Political Leadership

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 3 examines what political leadership means in the age of governance. In unison, theories of metagovernance and recent theories of political leadership provide the necessary building blocks for developing a concept of interactive political leadership that captures what political leadership implies in a context where the members of the political community take an active part in governing society. While metagovernance theory highlights the role of hands-off and hands-on forms of governance in regulating self-governance, new theories of political leadership provide a helpful redefinition of the role of power and the relationship between leaders and followers in political leadership. These important insights pave the way for the development of a concept of interactive political leadership and a specification of nine tasks for political leaders in multi-actor policy-making. The chapter concludes by listing a number of challenges and dilemmas facing politicians who aspire to become interactive political leaders.