13 DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ERIC THOMAS WEBER University of Mississippi j ohn Gastil (1994) offers one clear place to start a dis- cussion about democratic political leadership. He summarizes democratic leadership as "behavior that influences people in a manner consistent with and/or con- ducive to basic democratic principles and processes, such as self-determination, inclusiveness, equal participation, and deliberation" (p. 956). Gastil adds to this definition an emphasis on distributing responsibility, empowering people, and aiding deliberation. He also adds that not all sit- uations are appropriate for democratic leadership, such as when judges are needed or when decisions should be left to individuals' privacy and free choice. He implies that the theories and practice of democratic political leadership comes in many forms because of its many purposes. This chapter will discuss some elements of democratic political leadership before proceeding to sections on theory, applica- tions, comparisons, and future directions for scholarship. Finally, a list of key texts on democratic political leadership at the end of this chapter will offer material for those seek- ing further resources for studying the concept. The Elements of Democratic Political leadership Leadership has descriptive and prescriptive elements. To understand this difference, one can consider Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther King Jr. Clearly, we may describe Hitler as a leader because of the position he held as head of the German state. At the same time, the wars and geno- cidal policies that he undertook are inconsistent with what we prescribe for those in leadership. To call people lead- ers in some circumstances expresses ethical characteris- tics that we expect them to exemplify or call others to follow. Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of a person called a moral leader. Another distinction of descriptive and prescriptive lead- ership has to do with authority and power. The term author- ity can refer to a position, while the term leadership refers to a type of behavior. Others will use the term authority to dis- tinguish good from bad uses of power. Power is neither a good nor a bad thing except in how one uses it. Thus, when powerful people act in accordance with ethical principles that advance the good of society, they are using power in a way that others will deem legitimate and appropriate. Power can be authoritative in a moral sense. We can see, therefore, that when we discuss leadership we actually may be describ- ing authority, formal and informal, and prescribing when the exercise of power by those with authority may be legitimate or illegitimate. These distinctions and the considerations that go into prescribing the values of leadership run as threads throughout the chapters in this entire collection. Democratic principles accord power and authority to majorities, but the rights of a minority impose limits on what the majority can do. For example, the possibility of a majority voting to remove civil and even human rights from a certain minority of the voters and to exclude them from future participation in government led thinkers as early as Aristotle to believe that democracy, in this sense of major- ity rule for the benefit of the majority, would be an illegiti- mate form of government. Democratic political leaders, therefore, have a duty insofar as they are committed to dcmocratic values to uphold the majority's wishes and to protect the rights of political minorities. When the concept of leadership is understood as a process (prescriptive) rather than as a position (descrip- tive), it commonly refers to the practice of constructing or reconstructing situations that require public attention. 105 Weber, Eric Thomas, "Democratic Political Leadership," Chapter 13 in Political and Civic Leadership: A Reference Handbook, edited by Richard Couto, Washington, D.C.: Sage Press, 2010, p. 105 - 110.