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Many authors argue that candidates are more popular among voters from their own region. Two potential explanations have been suggested: voters' identification with their home region, and the representation of regional interests. The information on candidates' residence can be transmitted to voters in different ways, the most easily accessible way being information printed on the ballot paper. However, most studies on "friends and neighbour voting" use aggregate data. Studies that rely on individual level data usually put respondents in hypothetical situations and confront them with synthetic candidates, reducing their realism. To bridge this gap and to test the effect of providing information on the candidates' residence, we use data from a survey experiment to analyze voters' responses to ballot paper information on the regional background of real candidates in the 2014 European election in Germany. We find that voters in an open list PR election are more likely to support regional candidates if ballot paper information on the candidates' geographic background helps them to do so. The appeal of personal ties is a stronger explanation for vote preference than the one based on regional interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the biography of a failed entrepreneur - C.J. (Jack) DeGaris, a household name in the early 1920s and now largely forgotten. Not mentioned by Nichols is the government's commitment to other soldier settlement schemes, in the wheatbelt and in the southwest, where the infamous Group Settlement scheme was supported by the British government. The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C.J. DeGaris: By David Nichols. [Extracted from the article]

In recent years, the Chinese government has initiated assertive centralization efforts in its approach to environmental governance. However, the efficacy of these initiatives demonstrates marked variability across different sectors. While the central-local relational framework has traditionally been employed to elucidate these disparities, its explanatory power is showing signs of strain. This paper, through policy analysis and field interviews, investigates regulatory conflicts in land use for ecological and agricultural purposes within China. The findings highlight instances of overlapping jurisdictions and discordant policy objectives among agencies responsible for delineating ecological spaces and agricultural zones. While these conflicts seem to stem from the dynamics between the central and local governments, they more accurately reflect the inherent characteristics of fragmented authoritarianism. This paper aims to expand the theory of fragmented authoritarianism by incorporating the dimension of inter-departmental competition into environmental governance, moving beyond the traditional binary analysis framework of central-local relations. It seeks to understand and critique its limitations from a broader perspective, emphasizing the role of departmental competition within fragmented authoritarianism. By analyzing this internal mechanism, the paper reveals a more nuanced governance landscape, essentially replacing the traditional central-local paradigm with a model that situates departmental competition within the overall context of fragmented authoritarianism. We propose two models for delineating competition among governmental institutions: the bureaucratic model and the charisma model, thereby advancing and deepening the application of fragmented authoritarianism theory in China's environmental governance. This provides new theoretical insights for understanding the current challenges and developments in China's environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countless articles and books have been written about transformational leadership theory since the late 1970s when it first appeared in the literature. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to illustrate that transformational leadership contains both logical and psychological problems when explaining the nature of leadership and as an empirically supportable and verifiable construct. It aims to show that its failure to garner evidence from a scientific methodological analysis may not invalidate its efficacy if it is viewed from an alternative lens, such as aesthetics. An aesthetic frame is one that recognizes sensuous ways of knowing since feelings and emotions are just as important as reason and logic. An aesthetic approach to leadership would see leadership as more of an art than a science. This paper is not arguing for the abandonment of transformational leadership theory; rather it is saying that an aesthetic lens is likely to yield a richer, more artistic, and more nuanced account of what is understood and enacted as transformational leadership. This way, the manifestations of transformational leadership may live on in the arts and continue to inspire and motivate us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large, charismatic animals trigger human emotional responses, which consequently result in taxonomic biases that have been proven in various fields. In our research, we analysed the representation of animals and plants in scientific papers published in three major conservation journals (Conservation Biology, Journal of Applied Ecology and Conservation Letters) between 2011 and 2020. Furthermore, we examined the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) and each paper's total number of citations focused exclusively on a single taxon (59% of all papers). Mammals were represented on journal cover pages significantly more frequently than other taxa, while reptiles, amphibians and fish were underrepresented. The total number of published papers and the AAS favoured mammals significantly, while reptiles, plants and amphibians received the lowest AAS. The AAS of mammals was positively influenced by the body mass and appeal score. Scientific citations showed a slight correlation with the AAS. Papers about mammals, invertebrates and amphibians received the most citations, followed by plants, fish, birds and reptiles. These results showed that there are taxonomic biases that favour large mammals over other taxa, both among scientists as well as the public. Therefore, publication policy should be changed in order to support the shift of scientists and, subsequently, public interest itself toward neglected taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campaigns for personal health expenses make up the largest and fastest-growing segment of donation-based crowdfunding. Set against the backdrop of retrenchment and disinvestment in public healthcare systems across the global North, health-related crowdfunding is a way to navigate increasingly marketised systems of social reproduction. Despite high profile success stories, campaigns vary significantly in their ability to capture the hearts, and ultimately wallets, of donors. While existing analyses of online campaign pages offer some insight into the marketing of healthcare needs, far less is known about practices and experiences of crowdfunding platform users, including campaigners. Bringing literature on crowdfunding together with accounts of the marketisation of care, our paper asks: how do campaigners work to secure crowdfunded healthcare? Through the accounts of 15 people campaigning on behalf of family or friends in Aotearoa New Zealand, we show how attempts to appeal to donors depend on campaigners' abilities to 'market' illness and need in ways that resonate with the crowd. We have two main foci. First, we examine the responsibility and responsibilisation of campaigners to engage and perform accountability to crowdfunders. Second, we show how campaigners mobilise recipients' traits of deservingness and other culturally favoured personal qualities to appeal to the crowd's perceived predilections. In sum, the paper demonstrates how the use of crowdfunding is both necessitated by the marketisation of healthcare while simultaneously exerting its own form of market discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ars & Humanitas is the property of Ars & Humanitas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Software measures play an eminent role in the evaluation of quality of a web-based application. As people increasingly rely on web-based applications, the importance of examining web quality parameters has escalated. Customer acceptability is low when a low-quality web application fails to meet the implicit and explicit expectations of customers. Many frameworks for measuring quality criteria of web-based applications have been proposed so far, but they all fall short in some way. The majority of existing frameworks are either limited to a specific web-based application perspective or deal with a limited set of quality attributes. Based on the constraints of current frameworks, this paper offers the multi-attribute quality model (MAQM), a generic conceptual object-oriented framework for quantifying non-functional aspects of web development. This paper quantifies charismatic quality parameters which is non-functional parameter and sub-characteristic under web visitor's perspective of MAQM model, using fuzzy logic. The approach is chosen due to the heterogeneous and unpredictable nature of the web applications. Charismatic non-functional parameters are the important feature in customer entrenchment towards any web-based application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether charismatic leadership strategies can be successfully implemented within structures, systems and tasks for social workers to increase case management successes, particularly client well-being, given that the six key charismatic leadership traits align with presented professionally bound ethical expectations. Design/methodology/approach: A short generic qualitative review was done over fifteen publications, emphasizing the effects of charismatic leadership in domestic and foreign occupational domains. Findings: Methodological, thematic and theoretical analyses show that charismatic leadership strategies are active in relevant social work domains with positive participant impacts. Practical implications: The paper is intended to primarily investigate whether charismatic leadership is present in social work domains, and does not consider other leadership modalities. Originality/value: High-quality reviews from the presented methodological investigations suggest that charismatic leadership is an effective leadership modality that should be considered into client-involved structures and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper narrates the concept of Sustainable Peace Leadership and examines how three prominent Peace Activists from South and Southeast Asia measure up to the concept. The article will consider the works and ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Lhamo Thondup (The 14th Dalai Lama), and Nguyen Xuan Bao (Thich Nhat Hanh). Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in achieving Indian independence from the British Empire. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and has managed a difficult relationship with the Chinese government following the occupation of Tibet. Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and is known as the 'father of mindfulness'. The paper identified several characteristics of Peace Leaders. These include being a charismatic leader who motivates their followers to achieve their goals in a non-violent and inclusive manner. Peace leaders meditate and spend time developing inner peace which then leads to outer peace. The paper also asserts that peace leaders are capable of recognizing the humanity in their opponents and seek a mutually beneficial solution. The three chosen individuals are all recognised as being charismatic leaders who were prominent peace leaders. All were deeply spiritual and practiced meditation and other inner work on a regular basis. They stressed the humanity in their opponents, based on their religious beliefs and the concepts of non-duality and interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Internet technology continues to advance and as various social media platforms proliferate, consumers have gained the ability to distribute video content across a multitude of online channels. A vlog (video blog) is an online video documentary format used by vloggers (video bloggers) to record their daily lives and share their experiences with various products. In recent years, Vloggers who publish vlogs on social media have gained increasing popularity. The use of vlogs to convey product information has received widespread attention, leading an increasing number of companies to consider them part of their marketing mix and actively incorporate them into their marketing strategies. However, it is still unclear which factors influence consumer attitudes while watching vlogs. Therefore, it has become a focus of attention in both academia and the business world to clarify how vlog promotion content influences consumer attitudes and to use vlog promotion to improve consumer attitudes, thereby increasing consumers' purchase intentions and achieving brand promotion objectives. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors that influence consumer attitudes towards vlog promotion content. This article is based on the ABC attitude model theory, and data collected through an online questionnaire survey of Chinese consumers were analysed to statistically verify the relationship between consumers' purchase intentions and factors related to vlog content. The predictor variables included trust in vlog, vlogger popularity, vlogger personal appeal, understanding of vlogger advertised products, vlog content, and frequency of interaction between vlogger and fans. Path analysis revealed that two intermediate variables related to vlogger (cognition and emotion) had a positive impact, and a model was constructed to further examine their influence on consumer behaviour (dependent variable). The research findings of this study reveal that three key factors significantly influence consumer attitudes towards vlog promotion. These factors encompass the understanding of vlogger's advertised products, vlog's content, and the frequency of interaction between vlogger and fans. For future vlog promotions, it is recommended to augment the vlogger's product knowledge and approachability. To create captivating vlog content, emphasis should be placed on enhancing its entertainment value, establishing personal connections with viewers, and encouraging shareability. Moreover, the vlogger should actively engage with dedicated fans, prioritize valuable fan comments, and foster harmonious relationships. Furthermore, the findings of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of vlog promotion for various brands and services, providing valuable insights into the content of promotional activities for different brands and services. This highlights the strategic significance of vlog promotion and its relevance in guiding promotional strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamic relationship between the spiritual community of Damanhur and its founder, Oberto Airaudi. Scholars consider Airaudi to be an example of Weberian charismatic leadership that was sui generis; the community, however, experienced an early routinisation, which granted it longevity and stability. Doctrinal and social evolution instead suggests a change in this charismatic relationship over the years, which occurred in four phases. His charisma passed from the ability to perform occult practices (occultist), to ideate a syncretic cosmology centred on Damanhur (religious), eventually allowing him to become an "inspirer from the outside" (inspirational). The last phase explains the survival and partial routinisation of the charisma after his death (post mortem). The study primarily relies on the analysis of Damanhurian writings, with a particular focus on the initial ten years. It also incorporates qualitative data from fieldwork and ethnographic material available in the scientific literature. The analysis suggests that Damanhur did not start as a charismatic community but as a social experiment. The development of Airaudi's charisma, via a syncretic mythology based on a religious concept of memory, absorbed Damanhur's social dimension, shaping it according to a collective spiritual endeavour aimed at reconnecting human beings with their divine inner nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a tendency to find populist characteristics in all experiences of representation based on personal leaderships which present themselves as outsiders and establish direct communication with the citizenry. This paper seeks to contribute to avoid this conceptual stretching, proposing to start from a concept of a higher level of generality, "immediate politics", and then differentiate between a populist type and a type that I will call "proximity". The anti-charismatic or proximity identification is based on the figure of the "ordinary person", close and empathetic, although without the component of "extraordinary person" implied in charisma, and without the correlate of the construction of a collective subject or People. In short, this paper asks about this kind of "populism without a People" that is also present in contemporary politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max Weber's ambivalent view of evolutionary theory has sparked ongoing debate. While rejecting simplistic social Darwinism, his writings reveal an implicit evolutionary logic underlying broader cultural transformations. Across multiple works, Weber modeled cultural change through the interplay between charismatic innovation and institutional order. This paper argues Weber provides a sophisticated model of cultural evolution by elucidating the relationship between these two forces. The aim is to demonstrate how framing Weber's dichotomy in evolutionary terms offers novel insight into his nuanced vision of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerned with the representations of fruits in Greco-Roman mythology and Genesis, this paper first explores the various meanings of charis and its conceptualization, and their embodiments. It then addresses object agency, before questioning the possible propriety of certain fruits in visual and textual narratives to emanate and/or appropriate charisma. To do so, the paper presents a discussion of the linguistic and conceptual mutability and malleability of the term 'charis' and its conceptualization into charisma, as well as its possible manifestations or translations in fruits, thus transforming the latter into (accidental) actors. Finally, this study provides an exploratory reflection on the ambiguity and metamorphic aspect of "charismatic" fruits in the context of myths and the Genesis narrative represented in the visual arts, and their translation into fairy tale narratives and modern advertising campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity formation is a complex process and has been discussed by post‐structuralist discourse theorist Ernesto Laclau. This paper focuses on Laclau's proposed ideas on the means of identity production and populism and studies the popular independence movement for Bangladesh under that rubric. It locates charismatic leadership as a necessary condition for populism and identifies Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the charismat suturing the various chains of equivalence that rose to become the populist movement that resulted in the nation's struggle for independence in 1971. This paper also looks at the transformational leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and acknowledges it as a necessary condition for the patterns of identity creation in East Bengal in the late 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the connection between religious and military spheres in Constantinian propaganda. The extensive use of propaganda and the notorious public discourse which involves the dynamics of power during Late Antiquity show how religion and the military played a key role. This principle reaches a singular meaning in the case of emperor Constantine I. To this extent, this paper considers several kinds of sources, which include legal, literary, and numismatic, among others. An analysis of the political uses of imperial constitutions by the emperor (especially CTh 7.20.2) can be of particular interest in order to address the ideas of self-representation and the politics of legitimation. Ultimately, the paper highlights the importance of imperial propaganda in Later Roman society, as well as the transformations in Constantine's public discourse, where the connection between army and religion shows an evolution from the previous ways of understanding imperial power and where the bond of the ruler with a supreme divinity is a central issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By attributing the term "charismatic" to Saint Louis, Jacques Le Goff identified two sources of charisma: sacred kingship and personal holiness. Without denying these aspects of the holy king's reputation, we should investigate the nature of the charismatic relationship that linked Louis IX to his contemporaries. The sacrality of Louis IX pre-existed him; his sanctity is a post-death construction. What are the attributes of the living character that would allow us to recognize a charismatic personality? This paper argues that the religious aura of the king, which best echoes the Paulinian version of charisma, was sometimes at odds with the political expectations levied on a medieval ruler, which a Weberian definition of charisma helps to define. In this light, the crusades provided a unique setting where the king's Christ-like qualities and his political leadership could be reconciled. To conduct this argument, this paper proposes to look for the symptoms of Louis IX's living charisma in the reactions of his contemporaries, based on the re-examination of classical sources on the life of the king, carefully contextualized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ample work in political communication showed that high-level politicians get more media attention than their lower ranking colleagues. With power comes media attention. More than hard work, charisma, or experience, it is the political function performed by politicians that is the crucial factor in explaining how much media attention they receive. But what about the opposite relationship: does media attention also generate power? In this paper, we examine the media path leading to power. Basically, two important career steps of politicians are assessed: becoming a party leader and becoming a minister; we test whether, compared to those who did not make a top career, the politicians who came to take these steps were more prominent in the media before they moved up and became elite politicians. We draw on the case of Belgium here and leverage on a longitudinal automated media content analysis (2000–2020) combined with a data set of 532 national/regional politicians and their careers. The study finds that media occurrences matters for being promoted to a top function in Belgium, more so for becoming a minister than for becoming a party leader. Furthermore, rejecting our initial idea based on political mediatization theories, the influence of media occurrence does not seem to increase through time for both functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our paper, we address the question of the authenticity of political rhetoric which uses the inclusive term "the people". We build on the knowledge of classical rhetoric on the importance of sincerity, one of the fundamental pillars of a speaker's ethos (character) and at the same time a prerequisite for his credibility. We introduce the term "rhetoric of people" to designate that part of deliberative rhetoric that addresses the people in a significant way, and bears their sealing in content, stylistic and argumentative plan. We especially single out populist rhetoric only as a special case of the rhetoric of people, in which there is a pragmatic use of authenticity as a tool to achieve specific social goals linked to the political capital of the speaker, primarily to image creation (we put it in opposition to charisma). Since style is a significant bearer of speech authenticity, our aim is to identify the stylistic values and stylistic strategies applied in the interest of authenticity and to elucidate them as instances of sincerity or, conversely, pretense. In doing so, we draw on the pragmatic grasp of linguistic style developed in the work of Professor Juraj Dolník (2010; 2023), who explains style through its anthropic character and social meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a theoretical model for distinguishing between mere popularity and personality cults as there currently is an inflated use of the personality cult concept, especially in news media, attaching it to significantly different phenomena. The model is based on Weber's concept of charismatic authority and consists of three parameters, widespread symbolic elevation, resilience and religious parallels, covering a representational and social practice dimension. Both dimensions are needed to constitute a personality cult. Trump, Putin and Ardern are used as examples of the model's ability to distinguish between cult and non-cult phenomena. The comparison shows that only Trump and Putin have a cult on both dimensions. Mere popular politicians like Ardern are more comparable to celebrities as these do not have the same authority and power over the followers as leaders with a personality cult – despite potentially showing some cultlike tendencies on the representational dimension. Popular politicians are thus especially characterised by lacking the key social practice aspect of personality cults. As they might still exhibit some cultlike characteristics, the different phenomena are best perceived as being on a continuum ranging from mere admiration or popularity to a personality cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls for using marine protected areas (MPAs) to achieve goals for nature and people are increasing globally. While the conservation and fisheries impacts of MPAs have been comparatively well‐studied, impacts on other dimensions of human use have received less attention. Understanding how humans engage with MPAs and identifying traits of MPAs that promote engagement is critical to designing MPA networks that achieve multiple goals effectively, equitably and with minimal environmental impact.In this paper, we characterize human engagement in California's MPA network, the world's largest MPA network scientifically designed to function as a coherent network (124 MPAs spanning 16% of state waters and 1300 km of coastline) and identify traits associated with higher human engagement. We assemble and compare diverse indicators of human engagement that capture recreational, educational and scientific activities across California's MPAs.We find that human engagement is correlated with nearby population density and that site "charisma" can expand human engagement beyond what would be predicted based on population density alone. Charismatic MPAs tend to be located near tourist destinations, have long sandy beaches and be adjacent to state parks and associated amenities. In contrast, underutilized MPAs were often more remote and lacked both sandy beaches and parking lot access.Synthesis and applications: These results suggest that achieving MPA goals associated with human engagement can be promoted by developing land‐based amenities that increase access to coastal MPAs or by locating new MPAs near existing amenities during the design phase. Alternatively, human engagement can be limited by locating MPAs in areas far from population centres, coastal amenities or sandy beaches. Furthermore, managers may want to prioritize monitoring, enforcement, education and outreach programmes in MPAs with traits that predict high human engagement. Understanding the extent to which human engagement impacts the conservation performance of MPAs is a critical next step to designing MPAs that minimize tradeoffs among potentially competing objectives. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model describing potential relationships among transformational leadership, charisma, credibility and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approach This paper is conceptual, based on a review of current transformational leadership, charisma and credibility literature.Findings The authors present a model where credibility is an antecedent of transformational leadership; transformational leadership has a positive effect on organizational performance; and charisma positively moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance.Research limitations/implications A model to integrate credibility into transformational leadership research is proposed.Practical implications This paper considers credibility as an important attribute of transformational leadership, and thus credibility may have significant implications for practitioners in leadership development strategies.Originality/value Currently, there is a lack of research on the role of credibility in leadership. The authors discuss the importance of measuring leader credibility and generating a credibility scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the motif of “the naked person” in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s early work. Epic tales which belong to the so called “labour camp prose”, such as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1959) and The Cancer Ward (1968), stand out in the context of this motif. Moreover, the “unbearable world” and the “naked person” have been structurally significant for the “labour camp prose” since Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekhov. All of them imply that these elements bring the reader closer to understanding the ontology of a person who is forbidden to wear a cross on his chest and thus seek protection from God and cultural myths. The paper examines historical developments of the “naked person” imagery in Russian literature from the seventeenth century to the Avantgarde and postmodernism by analysing relations between reality and the “unbearable world” (the space of labour camps) in which nakedness and misery are deemed to be charisma, gifts from God. The Cancer Ward is still one of Solzhenitsyn’s most widely read works in Europe and America. Unlike the peasants in the story, Kostoglotov, an intellectual, reflects on the value of freedom, prospects of choice and the nature of evil – something which Ivan Denisovich touches upon only vaguely. The author is interested in mechanisms of self-identity in horrendous living conditions. Solzhenitsyn’s The Cancer Ward is a variation of the classic “non-finito” narrative. The protagonist, who has endured hardship and overcome limits of the “unbearable world”, moves towards the houseark as his life is just beginning. In fact, by employing terrible history, a labour camp and the hospital ward of the doomed, Solzhenitsyn’s text explores the driving forces behind a person’s self-identity, the most important of which are moral elevation, will, mercy and belief in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Investigating the relationship between the organizational identification of employees and their inclination toward unethical pro-supervisor behavior in the context of a leader’s charisma. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative study (N = 389) on a population representing different businesses in Poland. An analysis of correlation and moderation was carried out. The conceptual framework of the theory of social identification was applied. Findings: The leader’s charisma was found to be a moderator of the impact of staff’s organizational identification on unethical pro-supervisor behavior. When the leader’s charisma is high, greater identification with the organization translates into a lower inclination toward unethical pro-supervisor behavior. Research limitations/implications: The study sample was not statistically representative, and the study was cross-sectional. Similar research should be conducted in the future that covers the supervisor-subordinate dyads. Practical implications: Attention should be paid to unethical pro-supervisor behavior when developing ethical codes and good practices in companies. Positive aspects of charisma should be considered when evaluating a leader’s competencies. Originality/value: This paper helps better understand unethical pro-supervisor behavior determinants and indicates the role of charisma in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have studied charisma almost exclusively as a form of authority, following Weber's original conceptualization. While there have been many elaborations on Weber's work, the full richness of charisma as a concept has remained unexplored and its potential applicability to radically egalitarian movements limited. This paper offers a more democratic conceptualization of charisma by putting Weber's classic theorization into conversation with Hannah Arendt's theory of action. It argues that charisma is best understood as a latent capacity to act, a quality that is not exclusive to a few extraordinary individuals but rather is quintessentially and universally human. Using the US draft resistance movement during the Vietnam War as a case study through which to develop this conceptualization, the paper centers the charismatic act and explores the conditions of existential distress that elicit such acts and the conditions of (emergent) political community that enable and are constituted by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The messianic structure of human experience is manifest in the form of waiting—for an object who will alleviate suffering, and thereby, bring about change. The underpinning of such waiting is imagined here as messianic hope. In individuals, families, cults, religion, and politics, we may detect such hope—one that perhaps makes the unbearability of life bearable. This longing may get concretized in the shape of a person who comes to represent a link with God. From different vertices, messianic power may get located in the analyst, patriarch, the godman, or the political leader. Links that get forged between such figures and those who are waiting, may be thought of as messianic links. As a messianic group gets consolidated, it often displays certain primitive features. Such groups tend to veer towards a display of omnipotence, resolute action, a solution‐driven language. They may seek to cut off contact with painful reality and anoint someone who can enable that. Ideas of time are wrenched away from its painful association with loss. Time is made predictable and repetitive. Deliverance is promised, incertitude discarded. Messianic language is often evocative and enigmatic. It can be an expression of impotency. But language may also be used to fuel omnipotent longing, as with the use of omniscience by the anointed messiah. Such messianic groups may come together with shared magical beliefs in the annointed figure. But links by their very nature are dynamic and so, a link fueled by awe may also devolve into paranoia or else dependency or may be discarded altogether. This paper looks at two documentaries, and a novel, to give shape to messianic links. Here we see instances of how enigma may be replaced by charisma, and strength by hypervigilance. In that sense it seems that regardless of how they originate, they are condemned to move towards what Bion (1962) calls “minus links” or links that lead away from truth and the growth of the mind. We see that messianic links may either end catastrophically, or decay and degenerate to the point of disappearing, or else, lose the kernel, but assiduously preserve the shell, or finally institutionalized as deifying links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By differentiating the dynamics of leader democracy from those of populist leadership, this paper provides a political-sociological theoretical framework that can identify the ideal-types of the personalisation of leadership in advanced democracies. In the first part, the article develops the main features of leader democracy from the perspective of democratic elitism, highlighting how process does not entail a partyless democracy. The second part focuses on the disintermediation process in populist leadership, which is presented as a particular form of plebiscitary politics. The proposed theoretical framework diverges from the stream of the literature on populism, which tends to equate populist leadership with charismatic leadership. Furthermore, the article points out the substantial differences between the personalisation of the populist and charismatic leadership styles by comparing the key issues of populism and charisma in the processes of personalisation thus proposing an interpretative framework to resolve the contradictions among the dominant interpretative frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ways in which heroic leadership is manifested in current right-wing populism. Based on the distinction between heroic modernity and postheroic modernity, a genealogy of the heroic populist leader is proposed. This figure is analyzed by following the hero's life process in three moments: recognition of his charismatic exceptionality, the struggle to carry out his mission of salvation and the inevitable consequences of the struggle, which cannot be anything other than victory or defeat. Throughout these three phases of heroic action, the way in which the populist hero manages his charisma and intervenes in the culture wars will be shown. Finally, after accompanying him on this ritual journey, it will be understood why populist heroism adopts a regressive model of heroism. It is concluded that extreme right-wing populist heroism is regressive in character, both in its personal and institutional deployment. As a regressive force, it is a source of instability and conflict in postheroic modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When activists, multispecies ethnographers, or scholar-activists disrupt official narratives about how animal control agencies manage captive animals, the public pressure can result in increased vulnerabilities for both animals and agency employees. This paper unpacks an example where activists used public archives and records (methods widely used by multispecies researchers) to raise awareness about the story of a cat named Nina. Her case provides a reminder that bringing attention to injustice may result in punitive consequences for employees as the agency tries to appease the public rather than address internal policies. There are consequences for telling animal stories beyond simply giving animals a voice. How agencies respond to pressure resulting from the publication of animal stories demands ethical considerations beyond those currently required for research with human and nonhuman participants. This paper specifically addresses the use of public records to make captive animal experiences visible to a broader public and the potential for negative consequences these actions may have on the animals and employees of the animal agencies. The discussion suggests ways to mitigate these risks for captive animals and agency employees, beginning with preliminary research that situates the animal story within the political history of the agency, critical triangulation of data about the case, analysis of the internal policies that resulted in the situation, and the way the agency mitigates public criticism both internally and officially. These considerations weigh the risks and benefits of the shortand long-term impacts of confronting injustice against animals held in agencies' custody and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elite theory of Max Weber has recently been rediscovered by political scientists and political theorists who have sought to explore both the heuristic and the normative potential of plebiscitary leader democracy. Notwithstanding the merits of this wave of studies, this paper argues that attention should be shifted from Weber's context-specific defence of plebiscitary leadership in post-WWI Germany to his broader conception of charisma as an attempt to grasp the enigma of significant social and political change. Contemporary democratic theory, this paper contends, can fruitfully draw on Weber to sink into the antinomies and ambiguities of a transformative democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of "moral leadership," discussed here as a situation wherein individuals take a moral stance on an issue, convince others to do the same, and together spur change in a moral system, abounds in practice. Existing ethical and moral leadership theories, however, have remained confined to micro-level behavioral research. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a process theory of the socially situated emergence of moral leadership and its development into a broader movement affecting moral systems within and across formal organizations. We theorize the pathways through which moral leadership emerges; the triggers that bring about moral awareness and the moral courage to offer an alternative moral stance toward an issue, and leaders' ability to deftly connect followers and their moral convictions into a broader movement, such that a moral system changes from within. With our process theory, we bridge between micro and macro levels of analysis, and highlight the crucial ability of leaders to be both principled and pragmatically savvy, and thus capable of bridging between their own moral convictions and those of others in order to develop a common and mutually binding ground toward change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines crowds, leaders, and media after the 1979 Revolution of Iran. It focuses on media that contests hegemonic power by acting as a "guide" for an otherwise "leaderless movement," especially in contexts where conventional "guides" are illegitimate or absent. It argues that such media reveals the partisan reality of political order obscured by the myth of leadership, the idea that the presence of a leader implies a political order. I focus on International Women's Day 1979 when crowds protesting the Ayatollah Khomeini's decision to enforce the mandatory veil were caught in a paradox: as subjects of history and objects of representation. With focus on the non-partisan newspaper Ayandegan, the article shows how the crowds, objects of representation, became political subjects, as potential guides. Despite its efforts to remain neutral, Ayandegan became partisan when it unwittingly challenged the "charismatic leader" by giving presence to the partisan crowds. The mediated relation between leader and led on 8 March 1979 and after is instructive for our understanding of the role media can play in leaderless movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the charismatic leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi, analysing their influence on South Asian political history. The primary objective is to compare their leadership qualities and their impact on their respective political movements. Background information highlights the importance of Max Weber's theory of charisma in understanding their influence. The methodology involves historical and analytical methods, utilizing primary sources like speeches and secondary sources such as books and academic articles. Results indicate Jinnah's strategic political acumen and communication skills were crucial in creating Pakistan, contrasting with Gandhi's moral authority and nonviolent approach that faced challenges in achieving political unity. The study underscores the distinct nature of their charisma and its significant impact on South Asian political history. Recommendations suggest further comparative analyses of political leaders to understand the role of charismatic leadership in historical movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]