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Political leadership is a concept central to understanding political processes and outcomes, yet its definition is elusive. Many disciplines have contributed to the study of leadership, including political theory, history, psychology and management studies. Political Leadership reviews the contributions of these disciplines along with a discussion of the work of classic authors such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Max Weber and Robert Michels.

We live in the twenty-first century, which witnessed by far the most intensive marketing of politics, and traditional approaches (The Great Man Theory, situational, relational) to the process of emergence of political leader-ship are simply not enough. Cooperation between leaders and their followers is determined by cultural and social context, specific political situation of the time, patterns of social behavior. Development of new information technolo-gies and dissemination of the means of mass communication have introduced another factor to the analyzed process, forced by civilisational changes. These changes initiated the processes shaping the emergence of a fourth approach to political leadership, which we may call reactive. Reactivity is an active process of management of the changing image of the leader, responding to the evolving social preferences, and subsequently disseminated through the media.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: Traditional Perspectives -- 1. Political Leadership in the Yi Dynasty - James B. Palais -- Part II: Institutional Context of Leadership -- 2. Legislative Leadership and Democratic Development - Chong Lim Kim and Byung-Kyu Woo -- 3. Party Bureaucrats and Party Development - Bae-Ho Hahn and Ha-Ryong Kim -- Part III: Bureaucratic Elite and Popular Perceptions -- 4. Bureaucratic Elite and Development Orientations - Dong-Suh Bark and Chae-Jin Lee -- 5. Popular Perceptions of Political Leadership - Sung-Chick Hong and Young Ho Lee -- Part IV: Political Leadership in the Communist System -- 6. Communist Party Leadership - Dae-Sook Suh -- 7. The 1972 Constitution and Top Communist Leaders - Chong-Sik Lee -- Part V: Concluding Observations -- 8. Toward a Theory of Korean Political Leadership Behavior - Glenn D. Paige -- Appendix: Toward a Political Leadership Profile for a Changing Society -- Index.