What do we expect from our leaders, and how do we judge their performance? There can be no substantive assessment of leaders and leadership without comparing the fundamentally different contexts and settings in which leaders operate. At a time when international political research is rediscovering the importance of leadership, this volume marks the first major study specifically devoted to exploring all the fields of political leadership from a genuinely comparative perspective. The chapters in this volume cast a new light on the changing features and trends in the classic areas of political leadership, such as executive and legislative leadership, and leadership in political parties. In addition, they explore many younger subfields of political leadership research, such as crisis leadership and leadership in social movements. These area-related analyses are complemented by more expansive assessments of leadership in old and new democracies, in non-democratic regimes, and in international organizations. The distinguished team of contributors is composed of leadership scholars from three continents and nine countries.

Ludger Helms is Professor of Political Science and Chair of Comparative Politics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His research and publications focus on issues of political leadership and democratic governance.