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Anticharismatic Authority: Joe Biden's Approximation of the Ideal Type.

Authors :
Wagner-Pacifici, Robin
Source :
Politics & Society; Jun2024, Vol. 52 Issue 2, p241-267, 27p
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

Sociologists have productively theorized power and politics via typologies and genealogies. This article combines these theorizing modalities to analyze the election of Joseph Biden in the 2020 US presidential election. Thinking about presidential genealogy, the semiotics of sequence and succession favored humility over hubris in the victory of Biden after Donald Trump. As well, drawing on Weber's three types of authority (traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational) and Fred Block's elaboration of a flexible but constrained and accountable missing fourth type, this article terms that fourth type anticharisma and reads Joe Biden as an anticharismatic aspirant. Whereas charisma draws its strength from the monopolization of attention by the leader, rupture, and crisis, anticharisma aspires to domestic tranquility, competence, familiarity, and empathy. The elaborated typology of authority presented here provides important angles into both the election of Joe Biden as the anticharismatic candidate and the constraints on democratic leadership in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00323292
Volume :
52
Issue :
2
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Politics & Society
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
176715900
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1177/00323292231158915