Leadership

Leadership can refer both to the process of leading, and to those entities that do the leading. The process of leadership can be actual or potential:

Leadership associated with a position of authority

In On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, Thomas Carlyle demonstrated the concept of leadership associated with a position of authority. In praising Oliver Cromwell's use of power to bring King Charles I to trial and eventual beheading, he wrote the following: "Let us remark, meanwhile, how indispensable everywhere a King is, in all movements of men. It is strikingly shown, in this very War, what becomes of men when they cannot find a Chief Man, and their enemies can." http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext97/heros10.txt

Related Topics:
Thomas Carlyle - Authority - Oliver Cromwell's - Power - Charles I - Beheading

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From this viewpoint, leadership emerges when an entity as "leader" contrives to receive deference from other entities who become "followers". And as the passage from Carlyle demonstrates, the process of getting deference can become competitive in that the emerging "leader" draws "followers" from the factions of the prior or alternative "leaders".

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The United States constitution provides another example of recycling authority. In the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the American Founders rejected the idea of a monarch. But they still proposed leadership by people in positions of authority, with the authority split into three powers: in this case the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. Under the American theory, the authority of the leadership derives from the power of the voters as conveyed through the electoral college. Many individuals share leadership, including the many legislators in the Senate and the House of Representatives. http://www.constitution.org/dfc/dfc_0917.htm

Related Topics:
United States - Constitutional Convention - Founder - Monarch - Three powers - Electoral college - Senate - House of Representatives

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