Abstract
In this chapter we examine how political leaders operate when ‘politics as usual’ is rudely disturbed by major forms of acute adversity. The origins of this adversity can be natural or man-made; they can stem from exogenous sources (accidents or conflicts elsewhere; international terrorists; aggrieved or aggressive neighbours) or from sources within the state (i.e. corruption, fraud, mismanagement, stalemate). What matters from a political leadership perspective is that their consequences — physical, psychological, and political — need to be managed, often under conditions of time pressure, high uncertainty, and collective stress. Politically, crises are episodes whose impact cannot be controlled merely by astute on-the-ground incident management, particularly so when the disruption in question raises widespread doubt about the effectiveness and the legitimacy of incumbent officeholders, existing institutions, established policy paradigms, or even of the political order as a whole (’t Hart 1993).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Almond, Gabriel, Flanagan, Scott C. and Mundt, Robert J. (1973) Crisis, Choice and Change (Boston: Little, Brown).
Axelrod, Robert (1976) Structure of Decision: The Cognitive Maps of Political Elites (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Boin, Arjen, ’t Hart, Paul, McConnell, Allan and Preston, Thomas (2010) ‘Leadership Style, Crisis Response, and Blame Management: The Case of Hurricane Katrina’. Public Administration 88(3): 706–23.
Boin, Arjen, McConnell, Allan and ’t Hart, Paul (2009) ‘Crisis Exploitation: Political and Policy Impacts of Framing Contests’. Journal of European Public Policy 16(1): 81–106.
Boin, Arjen, McConnell, Allan and ’t Hart, Paul (eds) (2008) Governing After Crisis: The Politics of Investigation, Accountability and Learning (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Boin, Arjen and ’t Hart, Paul (2000) ‘Institutional Crises and Reforms in Policy Sectors’. In Wagenaar, Hendrik (ed.), Government Institutions: Effects, Changes and Normative Foundations (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers), 9–32.
Boin, Arjen, ’t Hart, Paul, Stern, Eric and Sundelius, Bengt (2005) The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership under Pressure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Bostdorff, Denise M. (1994) The Presidency and the Rhetoric of Foreign Crisis (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press).
Bovens, Mark, ’t Hart, Paul, Dekker, Sander and Verheuvel, Gerdien (1999) ‘The Politics of Blame Avoidance: Defensive Tactics in a Dutch Crime-Fighting Fiasco’. In Anheier, Helmut K. (ed.), When Things Go Wrong: Organizational Failures and Breakdowns (London: Sage), 123–47.
Brändström, Annika and Kuipers, Sanneke (2003) ‘From “Normal Incidents” to Political Crises: Understanding the Selective Politicization of Policy Failures’. Government and Opposition 38(3): 279–305.
Brecher, Michael (1993) Crises in World Politics: Theory and Reality (Oxford: Pergamon).
Canes-Wrone, Brandice (2006) Who Leads Whom? Presidents, Policy and the Public (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Curran, James (2004) The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National Image (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press).
Edwards, George C. III (2003) On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
Fearn-Banks, Kathleen (2002) Crisis Communication: A Case Book Approach (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum).
Fiske, Susan T. and Taylor, Shelley E. (1991) Social Cognition (New York: McGraw-Hill).
Gaffney, John (1991) The Language of Political Leadership in Contemporary Britain (New York: St Martin’s Press).
George, Alexander L. (ed.) (1991) Avoiding War: Problems of Crisis Management (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
Greenstein, Fred I. (1969) Personality and Politics: Problems of Evidence, Inference and Conceptualization (Chicago: Markham).
Hajer, Maarten A. (2009) Authoritative Governance: Policy Making in the Age of Mediatization (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Hart, Roderick P. (1989) The Sound of Leadership: Presidential Communication in the Modern Age (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Herek, Gregory M., Janis, Irving L. and Huth, Paul (1987) ‘Decision Making During International Crises: Is Quality of Process Related to Outcome?’ Journal of Conflict Resolution 31(2): 203–26.
Hermann, Charles F. (ed.) (1972) International Crises: Insights from Behavioral Research (New York: Free Press).
Hermann, Margaret G., Preston, Thomas, Korany, Baghat and Shaw, Timothy M. (2001) ‘Who Leads Matters: The Effects of Powerful Individuals’. International Studies Review 3(2): 83–131.
Hood, Christopher C., Jennings, Will, Hogwood, Brian and Beeston, Craig (2009) ‘Fighting Fires in Testing Times: Exploring a Staged Response Hypothesis for Blame Management in Two Exam Fiasco Cases’. European Journal of Political Research 48(6): 695–722.
Kiewe, Amos (1994) The Modern Presidency and Crisis Rhetoric (New York: Praeger).
Kuypers, Jim A. (1997) Presidential Crisis Rhetoric and the Press in the Post-Cold War World (New York: Praeger).
Masters, Adam and ’t Hart, Paul (2012) ‘Prime Ministerial Rhetoric and Recession Politics: Meaning Making in Economic Crisis Management’. Public Administration, forthcoming.
Millar, Dan Pyle and Heath, Robert L. (2003) Responding to Crises: A Rhetorical Approach to Crisis Communication (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum).
Lebow, Richard N. (1981) Between Peace and War: The Nature of International Crisis (Boston: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Linz, Juan J. and Stepan, Alfred (eds) (1978) The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press).
Preston, Thomas (2000) The President and His Inner Circle (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Rawnsley, Andrew (2010) The End of the Party: The Rise and Fall of New Labour (London: Penguin Books).
Rosati, Jerel A. (1995) ‘A Cognitive Approach to the Study of Foreign Policy’. In Neack, Laura, Hey, Jeanne A. K. and Haney, Patrick J. (eds), Foreign Policy Analysis: Continuity and Change in Its Second Generation (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall), 49–70.
Rosenthal, Uriel (1980) Political Order (The Hague: Sijthof).
Rosenthal, Uriel, Charles, Michael T. and ’t Hart, Paul (eds) (1989) Coping With Crises: The Management of Disasters, Riots and Terrorism (Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas).
Schafer, Mark and Walker, Stephen G. (2006) Beliefs and Leadership in World Politics: Methods and Applications of Operational Code Analysis (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
Schafer, Mark and Crichlow, Scott (2010) Groupthink vs. High Quality Decision Making in International Relations (New York: Columbia University Press).
Steinbruner, John D. (1974) The Cybernetic Theory of Decision: New Dimensions of Political Analysis (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Stern, Eric (1997) ‘Crisis and Learning: A Conceptual Balance Sheet’. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 5(2): 69–86.
Stern, Eric K. and Sundelius, Bengt (1997) ‘Understanding Small Group Decisions in Foreign Policy: Process Diagnosis and Research Procedure’. In ’t Hart, Paul, Stern, Eric and Sundelius, Bengt (eds), Beyond Groupthink: Political Group Dynamics and Foreign Policy-Making (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), 123–50.
’t Hart, Paul (1993) ‘Symbols, Rituals and Power: The Lost Dimension in Crisis’. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 1(1): 36–50.
’t Hart, Paul (1994) Groupthink in Government: A Study of Small Groups and Policy Failure (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Tindall, Karen and ’t Hart, Paul (eds) (2009) Framing the Global Economic Downturn: Crisis Rhetoric and the Politics of Recessions (Canberra: ANUE Press).
Tulis, Jeffrey K. (1987) The Rhetorical Presidency (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Uhr, John (2003) ‘Just Rhetoric? Exploring the Language of Leadership’. In Bishop, Patrick, Connors, Carmel and Sampford, Charles (eds), Management, Organisation and Ethics in the Public Sector (London: Routledge), 123–44.
van Esch, Femke A. W. J. (2007) Mapping the Road to Maastricht: A Comparative Study of German and French Pivotal Decision Makers’ Preferences concerning the Establishment of a European Monetary Union during the Early 1970s and Late 1980s. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Management Sciences.
van Esch, Femke A. W. J. (2012) ‘Why Germany wanted EMU? The Role of Helmut Kohl’s Belief-System and the Fall of the Berlin Wall’. German Politics 21, forthcoming.
Welch Larson, Deborah (1994) ‘The Role of Belief Systems and Schemas in Foreign Policy Decision-Making’. Political Psychology 15(1): 17–33.
Wrightson, Margaret Tucker (1976) ‘The Documentary Coding Method’. In Axelrod, Robert M. (ed.), Structure of Decision: The Cognitive Maps of Political Elites (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 291–332.
Wood, B. Dan (2007) The Politics of Economic Leadership (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Young, Michael D. (1996) ‘Cognitive Mapping Meets Semantic Networks’. The Journal of Conflict Resolution 40(3): 395–414.
Young, Michael D. and Schafer, Mark (1998) ‘Is there Method in Our Madness? Ways of Assessing Cognition in International Relations’. Mershon International Studies Review 42(1): 63–96.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Arjen Boin, Paul ’t Hart and Femke van Esch
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Boin, A., ’t Hart, P., van Esch, F. (2012). Political Leadership in Times of Crisis: Comparing Leader Responses to Financial Turbulence. In: Helms, L. (eds) Comparative Political Leadership. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137264916_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137264916_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33368-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-26491-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)