The Meaning of Leadership in Political Systems

Abstract: In today’ democracies, we, citizens, elect individuals to represent us, to talk on our behalf. In this way, political leaders embody the beliefs, wishes, and will of populations, and must act as citizens’ representatives. However, nowadays, a crisis of confidence seems emerge between citizens and politicians. The particular leadership pacing political systems can give to us an interesting point of view to understand this phenomenon. In this way, it is essential, for all of us, citizens, to understand what define us as such, what is our role, what kind of power is in our hands. It is also necessary to understand what the role of politicians elected as representatives is. More significantly, it is a necessity for all of us to have a critical look about what the core components of our societies are. Thereby, in this thesis, I give an enlighten point of view about the meaning of leadership in political systems. I hold six different perspectives in the aim of emphasizing the components of political systems, our role of citizens, and the role of political leaders. Those six perspectives are the following: the reasons explaining the emergence of societies, the role and the explanations about the existence of political parties, the characteristics of political leaders, the characteristics of citizens as political followers, the importance of the authenticity in political systems and finally the moral and ethical dimension as a necessity in the way to handle power.