The Myth of the Strong Leader ─ Political Leadership in the Modern Politics

All too frequently, leadership is reduced to a dichotomy: the strong versus the weak. Yet, there are myriad ways to exercise effective political leadership?as well as different ways of failing. The myth of the strong leader leads us to believe that strength is to be admired, weakness to be deplored or pitied. This perpetuates a precarious illusion?and the danger only escalates in dictatorships where power is more concentrated in one individual.

In The Myth of the Strong Leader, legendary Oxford politics professor Archie Brown challenges the widespread belief that strong leaders?those who dominate their colleagues and the policy-making process?are the most successful. Brown contends it is high time to abandon this notion, for wise leadership comes in many forms?and in many circumstances a more collegial ruling is much more effective. From Charles De Gaulle to Margaret Thatcher to, from Deng Xiaoping to Barack Obama, The Myth of the Strong Leader offers a valuable reassessment of the leaders who shape our world.

Archie Brown is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University and an Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, where he was a Professor of Politics and Director of St. Antony’s Russian and East European Centre. In 2010 he received one of the three Diamond Jubilee Lifetime Achievement in Political Studies Awards. Brown is considered one of the foremost experts in Soviet and Communist politics, the Cold War, and political leadership, and has advised several political leaders, including Margaret Thatcher on the eve of Gorbachev’s first visit to Britain. The author or editor of over eighteen books, including The Gorbachev Factor and The Rise and Fall of Communism?both winners of the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize for best political science book of the year?Brown lives in Oxford.