Dahl’s concept of leadership: notes towards a theory of leadership in a democracy

Abstract

Robert Dahl’s writings contain a number of intriguing passages about leadership. The relevant sections appear in several of his key writings, including the Preface to Democratic Theory, Who Governs?, Modern Political Analysis, After the Revolution, and Democracy and its Critics. In these works, Dahl’s conception of leadership evolves from an emphasis on ‘control’ to ‘influence’, and finally broadens to include ‘competence’ and ‘expertise’. These sections are episodic and disconnected from one work to another; they repay close attention, nonetheless. This essay identifies these promising themes and sketches out some directions that a political theory of democratic leadership based on Dahl’s insights might take.

Keywords:

• leadership
• control
• influence
• expertise
• democracy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.