Ideological Leadership Research Articles

The Concept of ideal Muslim Commonwealth After the Novel French Letters by Ismail Gaspraly

Ismail Gaspraly or Gasprinsky (1851-1914) was a prominent Turkish-Muslim thinker, educator, writer and publicist. He was the ideological leader of the Jadid movement for emancipation of Muslims in Imperial Russian and throughout the World. He believed that that social and cultural progress of peoples professing Islam is only possible while preserving the Muslim religion and spirituality, as well as the perception of the achievements of European science and technology. For Muslims of the Russian Empire he advocated not revolutionary but evolutionary way of modernization through the development of traditional Islamic education (creating of newspapers, new-method schools-madrasah), governmental enlightenment, solution of the women's question and moral renewal of society. In literary form he expressed his concept in the first modern Turkic novel Frenkistan Mektyupleri (“French Letters”).

Arabs and Fascism: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives

The article establishes an interpretive framework for Arab responses to fascism during the 1930s and World War II. Promoters of the Islamofascism paradigm refer to this period as simply a manifestation of the allegedly illiberal inclinations of a vast majority of Arabs and Muslims. They present Arab expressions of sympathy for fascism as conditioned by alleged authoritarian or totalitarian structures inherent in the Islamic religion. In a more nuanced interpretation, Arab reactions to fascism form a phenomenon that can only be understood in the local and chronological contexts of decolonization, in which fascism was a model and reference as a tool of social disciplining with the ultimate goal of getting rid of colonial control. According to this framework, totalitarian references in political discourse were a means to an end that was widespread at the time. Other, equally nuanced interpretations see pro-fascist trends in Middle Eastern states—as they became manifest in party platforms, uniformed youth organizations, or collaboration schemes with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy—as manifestations of global fascism as a ‘type’. According to this reading, totalitarian and racial ideological systems and leader- and discipline oriented forms of social organization have to be understood as representations of a worldwide trend comparable to Marxist or Capitalist ideology. Examples from India and Latin America provide a comparative framework for this. Neither of the two latter approaches subscribes to a thesis of an Arab “Sonderweg” in the adoption of fascism. Reactions in the Arab world in particular and in Muslim societies in general did not differ substantially from those in other colonial societies.

Communicating Pan-Africanism: Caribbean leadership and global impact

This special edition of Critical Arts focuses on the seminal role played by political activists from the Caribbean region in the promulgation and communication of Pan-African ideas to the world. Unsurprisingly, this volume is edited and authored by Caribbean scholars who seek to develop and foster a deeper understanding of the role and contribution made by Caribbean activists from a small comer of the global African Diaspora. While the articles in this special issue foreground the contributions of three leading exponents of Pan-Africanism, namely Marcus Garvey, C.L.R. James and Peter Abrahams, its scope is much broader. It seeks to offer deeper insights into the close collaborative role played by the region among other Pan-Africanists from the United States (US), England and from the continent of Africa itself, in forging the alliances of resistance that hastened the arrival of decolonisation and civil rights in the affected countries and regions. The edition also encompasses contributions on Pan-African movements such as the Haitian Revolution and the Rastafari Movement of Jamaica, whose indelible imprints extended from their origins in the Caribbean to audiences and activists all over the world. It is in this respect that the articles and their associated messages convey implicit notions of communicating Pan-Africanism, as reflected in the title. Garvey, through the symbolism of the ceremonial kind, communicated dignity and hope for black people and other oppressed populations throughout the world in the early decades of the 20th century. But his Pan-African messaging extended far beyond the ceremonial and symbolic to include newspapers, posters, conventions, political meetings and oratory, among other forms. The annual convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA) initiated and sustained a dialogue between African and African Diaspora Pan-Africanists geared towards social, economic, cultural and political action. Garvey emerged as the leading proponent of Pan-Africanism in the 20th century. Before him, however, other Caribbean Pan-Africanists purveyed strong messages demanding change in the human condition of black people in the West Indies, the US, the United Kingdom (UK) and Africa. Edward Wilmot Blyden of the Virgin Islands is regarded as the leading 19th-century promoter of a movement for black self-empowerment and positive cultural identity. Others who formed part of this early movement were the Jamaican-born John Brown Russwurm, and black Americans Martin Delaney, Alexander Crummell and McNeal Turner. Some of these early advocates utilised their positions as members of the black clergy to advance the cause of a return to Africa to rebuild, 'Christianise' and stimulate development. Garvey operated contemporaneously with the first phase of the London-based Pan-African movement involving such leaders as Henry Sylvester-Williams, a barrister from Trinidad, based in the British capital. At a later stage there was George Padmore, also of Trinidad in the Caribbean. He eventually emerged not only as the radical ideological leader of the UK Pan-African Movement of his time, but also as the chief political scribe and publicist of the movement in the mid-20th century. Among those who came under his influence and with whom he interacted in London were Peter Abrahams and Walter Sisulu of South Africa, Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast (later Ghana), Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria. Most of these leaders were to go on to become heads of state, prime ministers or leading political figures in the decolonisation of their respective countries. Pan-African initiatives in the US were strongly influenced by the American intellectual leader and scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois, who also interacted closely with Caribbean and African leaders who were engaged in mutual political alliances in London and elsewhere. …

The Politicisation of Martin Luther in the German Democratic Republic

This article provides an account of one of the strategies employed by the post-war East German state to restrict the influence of the Protestant churches in the new Soviet order. Under the leadership of Erich Honecke the regime seized upon the idea of portraying Martin Luther as a genuine bourgeois revolutionary and harbinger of the proletarian revolution. Hence the regime permitted the churches formally to mark the Reformation in 1967 and later the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth in 1983. In this way it was hoped to persuade Protestants to acknowledge the ideological leadership of the ruling party. The church was thus forced to accept a role of being “the church in socialism”. The government expected that church people would gradually desert the church and accommodate themselves to the rule of so-called “real existing socialism”; a state of affairs which, of course, never came to pass.

Participation and Influence in Federal Child Welfare Policymaking

Very little current empirical evidence exists to guide U.S. child welfare policymaking interventions. This article builds on the knowledge base to determine the factors that best predict a witness' level of influence in federal child welfare policymaking. This content analysis of 150 randomly selected congressional child welfare hearings testimonies from the 10-year period covered by the 106th–110th Congresses (1999–2008) uses a binary logistic regression model. Researchers found that witness affiliation and the Congress in which the witness submitted testimony were significant predictors of a witness' level of influence. The political ideology of Congressional leadership and the committee to which the testimony was submitted were not significantly associated with a witness' level of influence. The article concludes with implications for research and practice.

Centering Love, Hope, and Trust in the Community

In this article, we suggest that communities must explore alternative leadership ideologies, actors, and venues to make meaningful academic and social improvements in our cities. We examine how themes from Paulo Freire’s critical ideology can help expand our conceptualizations of educational leadership and facilitate pragmatic responses to complex urban dilemmas. To illustrate our claims, we provide two case examples of urban educational leadership that is guided by Freirean dialogical tenets of love, faith, humility, hope, critical thinking, and solidarity.

Baltic Theater 1995–2005: Processes and Trends

During the decade from 1995 to 2005 theater in the Baltic region widened its repertory borders, created a new system of management and renewed its artistic language. It lost its ideological significance and intellectual leadership. The new system of contracts gave more freedom to theater managers in changing the inner structure of theaters, and in forming smaller and more dynamic theater companies. The self-identifying process appeared in all three Baltic theaters, as seen in such productions as Alvis Hermanis's Latvian Stories (2004), Priit Pedajas’ performance of Andres Kivirahk's Estonian Funeral (2002) and Rimas Tuminas’ production of Marius Ivaškevičius’ Madagaskaras (2004).

Revisiting the Baliraja Dam Struggle: A Study of an Environmental Movement in Maharashtra

This paper discusses a case of conflict over water resources which emanated from the issue of sand excavation in the Yerala river of Khanapur taluka of Sangli district in Maharashtra. Besides being a struggle for construction of a check dam, this movement presented an alternative practice for management of water resources for sustainable agriculture. The paper explores the processes and underlying dynamics of the Baliraja dam struggle in two villages in the taluka. It analyzes this localised struggle of farmers within the theoretical framework of Indian environmentalism, delineating the movement's ideological trends, leadership structure, and internal dynamism.

Impact of situational framing and complexity on charismatic, ideological and pragmatic leaders: Investigation using a computer simulation

Revisiting the work of Weber [Weber, M. (1921). The theory of social and economic organizations. New York: Free Press], Mumford and colleagues (e.g., [Strange, J. M., & Mumford, M. D. (2002). The origins of vision: Charismatic versus ideological leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 343−377; Mumford, M.D. (2006). Pathways to outstanding leadership: A comparative analysis of charismatic, ideological and pragmatic leaders. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.]) explored the thesis that in addition to charismatic leadership, there exist at least two additional pathways to outstanding leadership: ideological and pragmatic. Despite the compelling results of initial studies, however, questions remain as to when and under what situational conditions these three leaders operate most effectively. As such, an experiment was conducted to investigate two noteworthy contextual influences: 1) situational congruence with a leader's mental model and 2) environmental complexity. The experiment made use of a computerized leadership simulation where participants took on the role of a university chancellor. Results indicate that leader type, complexity, and situational framing were critical factors in determining leader performance on multiple game performance criteria as well as creative process criteria. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

The lion, the king and the cage: Late Chalcolithic iconography and ideology in northern Mesopotamia

AbstractRecent excavations at Tell Brak, Syria, have explored the site's early urban expansion, including excavation of Late Chalcolithic mass graves in a small mound at the site's outer edge. This mound built up rapidly and is primarily composed of industrial rubbish, particularly ceramics and flint debitage. The rubbish layers also contained nearly one thousand clay container sealings bearing stamp-seal impressions. The most important images represented are human figures in combat with lions, and caged single lions. These images date to ca 3800 BC and are evidence for the early development of the iconography and ideology of power and leadership.

Metropolitan processes in post‐communist states: an introduction

.This study introduces a collection of theme issue papers on metropolitan processes in post‐communist states. We first identify and discuss five key significant socialist‐era legacy aspects that continue to mould the course of events in the post‐communist urban scene. These are central planning, land allocation, the second economy, defence considerations, and the implications of the ideological leadership of the communist parties. We then procede to investigate the literature on the unfolding urban geography of post‐communism and the factors underpinning its development, and we place the papers collected in this theme issue into their context.

The sources of leader violence: A comparison of ideological and non-ideological leaders

Recent events have called attention to the potential of ideological leaders to incite violence. The present study examined 80 historically notable leaders. Violent and non-violent leaders were compared to violent and non-violent ideological leaders in a historiometric analysis examining individual, group, organization, and environmental variables that might predispose ideological leaders to violence. When criteria examining different manifestations of violence were regressed on the discriminant function scores resulting from this comparison of leader types, it was found that attributes of ideological leadership influenced the amount of violence, and the occurrence of institutional and cultural violence — accounting for variance in institutional and cultural violence above and beyond characteristics of leaders, in general, found to contribute to violence. The implications of these observations for understanding the sources of leader violence and the origins of violence among ideological leaders are discussed.

The re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China: A hegemonic analysis

This paper draws on Gramsci's concept of hegemony to examine and explain the circumstances leading to the re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China in the early 1980s. In particular, the paper attempts to understand the political and ideological influence upon the professionalisation process of the Chinese accountants. The paper not only highlights a major difference between the professionalisation process of the public accounting profession in China as compared to the West, but also the authoritative and dominant role assumed by the Chinese state in the whole societal set-up. Through effectively exercising its political and ideological leadership, the state successfully mobilised the Chinese accountants in the implementation of its economic-related agenda. The paper demonstrates that the state has clearly achieved hegemony within the accounting community, and further suggests that the state-accounting profession relationship could be likened to the father–son relationship as encompassed within the Confucian notion of wu lun.

THE MOON PYRAMID PROJECT AND THE TEOTIHUACAN STATE POLITY

AbstractThe Moon Pyramid is the second largest monument at Teotihuacan and represents a key source of information regarding the state polity and its underlying ideology. It was little known archaeologically until now. Extensive excavations around the pyramid and tunnel operations within its nucleus have discovered an elaborate architectural sequence, including seven overlapping monumental constructions and five burial complexes of sacrificed individuals and sacred animals associated with rich offerings. The excavations in nearby structures and the three-dimensional mapping of the Moon Plaza complex provide valuable new data relevant to better understanding the ancient city, including its foundation and urbanization processes and the ideology of leadership that was materialized by successive monumental constructions.

SHEFSTVO: LEV TROTSKY AND THE MILITARY ORIGINS OF REVOLUTIONARY PATRONAGE

Shefstvo, or revolutionary patronage, emerged within the Red Army under Lev Trotsky after the Russian Civil War as a relationship between a military unit and a local Soviet institution. The patron (the Soviet organization) provided material support for the troops and political and ideological leadership for the mass of peasant soldiers. Over time, the corruption inherent in material shefstvo and the economic recovery of the Soviet state changed the relationship to emphasize ideological shefstvo exclusively. By the time Trotsky was forced from the Red Army in early 1925, shefstvo had changed its direction, so that military units, by then a pillar of the regime, provided political and ideological leadership to the Soviet countryside.

Review of Elie Assis, Self-Interest or Communal Interest: An Ideology of Leadership in the Gideon, Abimelech and Jephthah Narratives (Judg 6-12)

Review of Elie Assis, Self-Interest or Communal Interest: An Ideology of Leadership in the Gideon, Abimelech and Jephthah Narratives (Judg 6-12)

Leadership Voices: The Ideology of ‘The New Economy’

This article explores leadership voices in the so-called new economy. For approximately half a decade, influential business leaders, authors of popular management texts, politicians, journalists and scholars preached the dawning of a new economic order and a corresponding new leadership practice. The article examines influential leadership voices and the ideology claims being expressed in Sweden during a particular time period. By bracketing the epochal claims in time and space, the dominating leadership ideology is examined. The results show a clear influence of market rationalism, but with a twist of community, emotions and reciprocal individualization.

Leo Strauss, Neoconservatism and US Foreign Policy: Esoteric Nihilism and the Bush Doctrine

The re-election of the George W. Bush administration in November 2003 and the unrelenting hard-line perspectives subsequently articulated by the President and senior foreign and defence policy figures, has led to much controversy within the US and the international community in general. Concern in particular has been expressed at the continuing influences upon the President of neoconservative thinkers and activists in and around his administration and the impact, more generally, of neoconservatism upon the key decision-making processes concerning the current war in Iraq and the post-9/11 ‘war on terror’. This paper concentrates primarily on the ‘why’ questions concerning the neoconservative ascendency — questions of why it understands the world the way it does — of why it is committed to radically changing both liberal and (traditional) conservative approaches to US foreign policy and the traditional systemic order. The paper suggests that intrinsic to this understanding and commitment, for some of the most significant of contemporary neoconservatives, is the work and legacy of Leo Strauss (1898–1973). There is contention associated with precisely what Strauss' dense and (consciously) ambiguous writings sought to convey to his readers. In this paper, I propose that for Straussian inspired neoconservatives his meaning and its implications are clear enough, in the (interpreted) injunction to wrench political and cultural power from the (perceived) liberal establishment in the US, and to forcefully and unapologetically impose American power, values and hegemonic design upon the global system, for the long-term good of that system. More precisely, I argue, neoconservatives have drawn from Strauss a thematic agenda of sorts which emphasizes; the re-invocation of strong nationalism and cultural unity in modern western societies; the value of a simple religious and philosophical morality, and (ultimately) of a ‘war culture’ as the basis of maintaining such unity; the use of maximum force by the Western democracies in the face of endemic threat; and of a more general ‘peace through strength’ approach to foreign policy by the US, the political and ideological leader of modern Western civilisation. From Strauss too has come the notion that elite rule is crucial if post-Enlightenment liberalism is not to further threaten the (classical) democratic model of governance, and that the neoconservative elite has the right and indeed the obligation to lie to the masses in order that the ‘right’ political and strategic decisions be made and implemented. Hence, the use of the so-called ‘noble lie’. I explore elements of this ‘Straussian’ agenda in this paper, emphasizing its significance for US and global politics in general and, in more specific terms, for the war in Iraq. The paper concludes with a discussion of the way in which Straussian and broader neoconservative influences were integral to the processes by which the ‘shock and awe’ attacks of March, 2003 were rationalized and legitimated within the Bush administration, via some eminently (ig)noble lies.

Dalit responses to unemployment in contemporary India

Given the rapid rise of unemployment in India, how is this affecting the new generation of college-educated dalits? An earlier paper described the current generation of college-educated dalit students as the ‘breakthrough generation’, because their numbers and educational achievements mark a distinctive break with the past.1 The present paper looks at dalit responses to unemployment. Specifically it examines three different kinds of responses by urban dalits in western India, using in-depth case studies of some young dalit lives. The aspirations of college-educated dalit students are linked to evidence about the rising unemployment in India during the 1990s, and the consequences of the extreme socio-economic pressures that this has exerted on one of India's most significant minorities, currently numbering in excess of 150 million people. The chief causes of unemployment are examined, together with the arguments for affirmative action in the corporate sector. The paper concludes by considering how mass unemployment, especially amongst educated dalits, increases the ability of the sangh parivar2 to recruit young supporters to the cause of Hindu militancy. 1 Marika Vicziany, ‘The Breakthrough Generation: Dalit Youth in Contemporary India’, in Harvard Asia Quarterly, Vol.VI, no.2 (Spring 2002), pp.28–37. Republished in Parimal Roy (ed.), Indian Families and Religious Diversity (Delhi: Sage, 2003). 2 This term is used to describe the broad brotherhood of Hindu militants in India who rally under the ideological leadership of the RSS and the political leadership of the BJP.

The origins of vision: Effects of reflection, models, and analysis

Although vision is known to be a critical component of outstanding leadership, little is known about how people create viable visions. Drawing from a model of vision formation proposed by Mumford and Strange [Mumford, M. D., & Strange, J. M. (2002). Vision and mental models: The case of charismatic and ideological leadership. In B. J. Avolio & F. J. Yammarino (Eds.), Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead (pp. 109–142). Oxford, England: Elsevier], 212 undergraduates were asked to form a vision for an experimental secondary school where they would be the new principal. In addition to a plan for implementation of their vision, participants were asked to write a speech describing their vision for the school that was to be given to relevant constituencies. The conditions of performance were varied to manipulate the quality of the models available, reflection on past experience in secondary schools, and analysis of key goals and key causes. It was found that the availability of viable models and an analysis of key causes, and key goals, coupled with reflection, led to the generation of evocative visions and somewhat better plans. The implications of these findings for understanding vision formation and leader development are discussed.