Politics

The Activity of Politics

It is helpful to think of politics as what the polis (or any other state form) does, just as athletics is what athletes do. Both politics and athletics are generic terms, for there are diverse types of athletics (e.g., track and field, hockey, golf, etc.) just as there are diverse types of political societies. As a result, the type of athletics depends on the form it takes, just as the type of politics depends on the form it takes place in, whether it be in a democracy, communist society, theocracy (run by clerics), or an oligarchy run by the wealthy.

The form of the political community influences political leadership. For example, it would be difficult (though not impossible) for an Adolph Hitler, who was called, “ der Führer [Leader],” to succeed in a political system like the United States with its numerous checks and balances that are intended precisely to prevent a despot from succeeding. The American president differs substantially from der Führer. Thus, understanding leadership in politics requires one to consider the institutional and political setting in which leadership operates, because that setting will influence the way leadership is practiced. As James MacGregor Burns has argued, “Political leadership is a product of personal drives, social influences, political motivations, job skills, the structure of career possibilities. Thus the need for esteem from others motivates the tyro to run for office, but the office and the career possibilities in turn shape the esteem received. Leadership is fired in the forge of ambition and opportunity” (Burns 1978, 126). The study of politics illuminates not only the offices that provide for leadership opportunities, but also the means by which leaders seek esteem, which enables them to lead and to conduct political activity.

As with the term politics, many of our words for leader and leadership derive from the past. For instance, many of the terms we use to signify power [Page 1210]and authority (which are attributes of leaders) derive from ancient Rome (Minogue 1995, 22). Authority derives from auctoritas, the founder of a city; the term also gives us our term author. The Romans distinguished “official” political leadership (e.g., Emperor) as potestas, from unofficial or moral leadership (potentia). The moral connotation of potentia can be seen when we consider that it gives us our term potential. While the Romans gave us many of our terms for leadership, they also gave us many of our words for citizenship. Indeed, from the Latin term for city, civitas, we have citizen (civis); a related term is civilization.

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