When leadership failed

Abstract

As we have seen, history is not only a tale of great men and their wills and their imagination, but it is partly also that story. Following Professor Lipset’s injuction, we find that by including leaders in our understanding of the world and in our reckoning of what is possible and desirable in human societies, we can more fully appreciate the extent to which choices can stretch constraits. The depths of Italian and Japanese liberalism and their replacement by fascism point us toward reisserting choice between great social, economic, and political forces on the one hand, and outcomes on the other. The choices to bolster the state against the challenges of mass politics. Goilitti reached out to leftist parties in a failed effort to incorporate the masses. Neither Hara nor Giolitti ever reached out directly to the masses with a compelling idea about a shared national project. Thay did not inspire citizens—they bought voters. And, in the event, buying agve way to bullying in both countries. Hara Kei and Giovanni Giolitti, two consummate politicians, had failed to be sufficiently creative. Their successors were remarkably creative bricoleurs who would not make the same mistake. And, as Lipset has reminded us, so long as leaders are creative, history has no shortcut and no end.