Poor Leadership and Bad Governance: Reassessing Presidents and Prime Ministers in North America, Europe and Japan (New Horizons in Leadership Studies series)

Product Description In leadership research there is a long tradition of focusing attention on the great and successful leaders and, more recently, on issues of good governance. This study breaks new ground by looking systematically into the manifestations and causes of poor leadership and bad governance in some of the world's most powerful democracies. Focusing on the presidents and prime ministers of the G8 - the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan - it explores the complex relationship between weak and ineffective leadership, undemocratic leadership techniques, and bad policies from a broad comparative perspective. What makes leaders weak or bad in different contexts? What are the consequences of their actions and behavior? And has there been any learning from negative experience? These questions are at the center of this fascinating joint inquiry that involves a team of truly distinguished leadership scholars. This book will prove invaluable for scholars and students of leadership, political science, contemporary history, and related academic disciplines. Readers with a general interest in public affairs and political history will also find plenty to interest them. Contributors: J. Gaffney, L. Helms, E.S. Krauss, J. Malloy, G. Pasquino, G. Peele, R. Pekkanen, B.A. Rockman, R. Sakwa Review Leadership and the lack of it is a central but underexplored issue in the study of contemporary politics. Ludger Helms is to be congratulated for bringing together a group of leading scholars to examine the relationship between leadership and governance. --William E. Paterson OBE, Aston Centre for Europe, UKA comparative look at bad policies, undemocratic aspects of leadership, and the question of what makes a leader weak in different contexts, Poor Leadership and Bad Governance is an invaluable contribution to modern political science shelves. . . Highly recommended. --Midwest Book ReviewLeaders are not always heroes. Bad public leadership is a big problem. If we are serious about holding our public leaders to account, then we need to know why they were bad, and why we supported them. Ludger Helms and his distinguished team tackle these difficult questions with sympathy, not cynicism. Their careful and insightful analysis alerts us to the dangers of venal and poorly performing leaders. --R.A.W. Rhodes, University of Southampton, UK About the Author Edited by Ludger Helms, University of Innsbruck, Austria