Routledge International Handbook of Charisma 9780367207441, 9780429263224

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“The Routledge Handbook of Charisma is a very valuable contribution to social theory and interdisciplinary scholarship. Chapters helpfully explore the heritage of the concept, examine its place in classical social theory, and show its relevance for contemporary research – all at a high standard.” Craig Calhoun, University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University, US “An authoritative collection of essays reworking the concept of charisma just in time for its spectacular return to political life globally. But this is not simply a volume that allows us to make sense of populism, comprising, instead, a remarkable range of investigations into the meaning of charisma from across the academic disciplines and around the world.” Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford, UK “This Handbook is truly a Charisma 2.0 version as designed by the editor. It is quite comprehensive in surveying the fascinating field of charisma from every conceivable angle, from its origins to religion to the arts. It should interest scholars from a variety of disciplines and encourage future research.” Raj Pillai, Professor of Leadership, California State University, San Marcos, US “Charisma deconstructed, revitalized and extended in myriad paths with unexpected and energizing results – this Handbook is a landmark in understanding leadership, authority, obedience and the politics of imposture.” Chris Rojek, Professor of Sociology, City, University of London, UK “This is a timely and important collection of essays on a timely and important subject. It brings together some of the most incisive commentators on the concept of charisma, who have explored its many different facets in a consistently illuminating manner, while also giving an excellent sense of how scholarly discussions on the subject have evolved since the days of Max Weber.” David A. Bell, Director of the Davis Center for Historical Studies, Department of History, Princeton University, US “This Handbook offers the most diverse perspectives on charisma in print today. Authors from around the world examine charisma from many disciplines and in fascinating contexts ranging from apocalypticism to Bollywood. Readers will be delight in discovering the insights and charm of this book on charisma.” Joanne B. Ciulla, Director of the Institute for Ethical Leadership, Rutgers Business School, US

Routledge International Handbook of Charisma

The Routledge International Handbook of Charisma provides an unprecedented multidimensional and multidisciplinary comparative analysis of the phenomenon of charisma – first defined by Max Weber as the irrational bond between deified leader and submissive follower. It includes broad overviews of foundational theories and experiences of charisma and of associated key issues and themes. Contributors include 45 influential international scholars who approach the topic from different disciplinary perspectives and utilize examples from an array of historical and cultural settings. The Handbook presents up-to-date, concise, thought-provoking, innovative, and informative perspectives on charisma as it has been expressed in the past and as it continues to be manifested in the contemporary world by leaders ranging from shamans to presidents. It is designed to be essential reading for all students, researchers, and general readers interested in achieving a comprehensive understanding of the power and potential of charismatic authority in all its varieties, subtleties, dynamics, and current and potential directions. José Pedro Zúquete (1978) is a political scientist whose research focuses mainly on comparative politics, social movements, and nationalism. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. He is the author of Missionary Politics in Contemporary Europe (2007) and the coauthor (with Charles Lindholm) of The Struggle for the World: Liberation Movements for the 21st Century (2010). Zúquete’s latest book is The Identitarians: The Movement Against Globalism and Islam in Europe (2018).

Routledge International Handbooks

ROUTLEDGE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF CHARISMA Edited by José Pedro Zúquete ROUTLEDGE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF WORKING-CLASS STUDIES Edited by Michele Fazio, Christie Launius, and Tim Strangleman ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF DIGITAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION Edited by Leah A. Lievrouw and Brian D. Loader ROUTLEDGE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF RELIGION IN GLOBAL SOCIETY Edited by Jayeel Cornelio, François Gauthier, Tuomas Martikainen and Linda Woodhead THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION OF BREXIT Edited by Juan Santos Vara and Ramses A. Wessel; Assistant Editor, and Polly R. Polak ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF CRITICAL FINANCE STUDIES Edited by Christian Borch and Robert Wosnitzer ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON THE GOVERNANCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY Edited by Anna Triandafyllidou and Tina Magazzini THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF CRITICAL EUROPEAN STUDIES Edited by Didier Bigo, Thomas Diez, Evangelos Fanoulis, Ben Rosamond and Yannis A. Stivachtis HANDBOOK ON ARCTIC INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE ARCTIC Edited by Timo Koivurova, Else Grete Broderstad, Dorothée Cambou, Dalee Dorough and Florian Stammler For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-International-Handbooks/book-series/RIHAND

Routledge International Handbook of Charisma

Edited by José Pedro Zúquete

First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, José Pedro Zúquete; individual chapters, the contributors The right of José Pedro Zúquete to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-20744-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-26322-4 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Contents

List of figures xi List of tables xii List of contributors xiii Acknowledgmentsxx

Introduction: the study of charisma José Pedro Zúquete

1

SECTION I

Concepts and theories

5

  1 Max Weber and the sociology of charisma Christopher Adair-Toteff

7

  2 Émile Durkheim and charisma Philip Smith

18

  3 Freud and charisma Elizabeth Lunbeck

28

  4 The anthropology of charisma Charles Lindholm

39

SECTION II

Historical cases

51

  5 Charismatic leaders in ancient Greece Joseph Roisman

53

  6 Charismatic leadership in ancient Rome Maijastina Kahlos

65

vii

Contents

 7 Fascism Roger Eatwell

77

  8 Maoism and charismatic domination Matthew D. Johnson

89

  9 Charismatic leadership in African politics Sishuwa Sishuwa

101

10 Charisma in Latin American politics Carlos de la Torre

115

SECTION III

Religion127 11 Charisma and shamanism Eric Michael Kelley

129

12 Charisma and Judaism David Aberbach

140

13 Charisma in Christianity Paula Pryce

151

14 Constructing Muslim charisma Jonathan E. Brockopp

163

15 Charisma in Hinduism Amanda Lucia

175

16 Charisma in new religious movements Erin Prophet

186

SECTION IV

Politics199 17 Charisma and democratic discourse Tom F. Wright

201

18 Charisma in liberal democracies Jean-Claude Monod

215

19 Political charisma and modern populism Takis S. Pappas

226

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Contents

20 Charismatic leadership, ethics, and politics Terry L. Price

238

21 Charisma and toxic leadership: Prime Minister Tony Blair Timothy Heppell

249

22 Charisma and revolution: the key to Max Weber’s project Carl Levy

261

SECTION V

Extremism275 23 Apocalyptic groups and charisma of the cadre Rebecca Moore 24 Sunni Jihadist charismatic leadership: the case of Anwar al-Awlaki (1971–2011) Haroro J. Ingram

277

288

SECTION VI

Management and business

301

25 Charisma in organizational studies Jay A. Conger

303

26 Signaling charisma Nicolas Bastardoz

313

27 A follower-centric perspective on charismatic leadership: an integrative review and agenda for future research Aï Ito, Jennifer Harrison, Michelle Bligh, and Christine Roland-Lévy 28 Charisma and traineeship Benjamin Tur

324

337

SECTION VII

Culture, media, entertainment 29 Charisma and the arts C. Stephen Jaeger

349 351

ix

Contents

30 Charisma and the media John Potts

363

31 Celebrity and charisma: integration and insurgency Eva Giloi

375

32 Independence and charismatic authority in popular music: just do it yourself – DIY Trajce Cvetkovski 33 Hollywood and charisma Kate Fortmueller 34 Celebrity, charisma, and post-truth relations: agnogenesis, affect, and Bollywood Pramod Nayar 35 Charisma in sports Tim Delaney

387 398

408 418

SECTION VIII

Rising topics

431

36 The evolutionary foundations of charismatic leadership Ronald F. White

433

37 Charisma and gender among leaders Jean Lau Chin†

445

38 Charisma and the digital age: mass re-enchantment online and networking the new iron cage Raymond L.M. Lee 39 Death becomes us! Rethinking leadership charisma as a social inference Louisa Fink, Rolf van Dick, Niklas K. Steffens, Kim Peters, S. Alexander Haslam

457

468

Index480

x

Figures

17.1 17.2 17.3 19.1 27.1

“Mesmerising John Bull” (c.1841), National Library of Medicine 206 “The Magnetic Blaine,” May 8, 1880, Harper’s Weekly207 “The Cheap Dollar Ghost Dance,” Aberdeen Daily News, September 29, 1896 210 Charismatic leadership as a three-level concept 229 Follower-centric perspectives of charismatic leadership using a levels-ofanalysis framework 327 39.1 Serial mediation effect of identity leadership and identity fusion in Study 3 473 39.2 Partisanship and the death-charisma effect for (a) Helmut Kohl and (b) Helmut Schmidt in Study 3 474

xi

Tables

19.1 19.2 19.3 27.1

Types of legitimate leadership according to their nature and rule aims The index of charismatic leadership The index of populist leadership Summary of future research directions on follower-centric perspectives on charismatic leadership using a levels-of-analysis framework 39.1 Summary of studies

xii

228 230 232 331 471

Contributors

The editor José Pedro Zúquete (1978) is a political scientist whose research focuses mainly on comparative

politics, social movements, and nationalism. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. After receiving his PhD from the University of Bath (2005), Zúquete was a research fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Zúquete has edited books and special journal issues in Portugal and Brazil, and he is the author of numerous articles in journals such as The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Political Ideologies, and Latin American Politics and Society. He is the author of Missionary Politics in Contemporary Europe (2007, Syracuse University Press) and the coauthor (with Charles Lindholm) of The Struggle for the World: Liberation Movements for the 21st Century (2010, Stanford University Press). Zúquete’s latest book is The Identitarians: The Movement Against Globalism and Islam in Europe (2018, Notre Dame University Press).

The contributors David Aberbach (1953) is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Studies at McGill University, Montreal. He is the author of various studies combining Arts and Social Sciences: Surviving Trauma: Loss, Literature and Psychoanalysis (1989), Charisma in Politics, Religion and the Media (1996), National Poetry, Empire and War (2015), and Literature and Poverty (2019). He is currently Honorary Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, writing on literature and the environment. Christopher Adair-Toteff (1950) is Fellow at the Center for Social Thought at the University of South Florida. He has taught in the United States as well as Europe. His recent books include Raymond Aron’s Philosophy of Political Responsibility (2019), Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion (2016), and Fundamental Concepts of Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion (2015). He is completing a book on Carl Schmitt and is writing one on Max Weber’s political philosophy. Nicolas Bastardoz (1987) is Senior Research Associate at the University of Zurich in the

Chair of Human Resource Management and Leadership. His research interests span two broad domains: Leadership and Methods. His leadership interests focus on charisma (its antecedents, measurement, and consequences), followership, and power. Methodologically, he is interested in applications of applied econometrics and methods for causal inference. Nicolas currently acts as Associate Editor and Methods Advisor for The Leadership Quarterly.

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Contributors

Michelle C. Bligh (1974) is Dean and Professor of Organizational Behavior in the School of Social Science, Policy, and Evaluation at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, US. Her research interests include charismatic leadership, gender, and followership. She has worked with a number of industries, including local and state law enforcement, consulting, health care, and real estate, and has taught and consulted in North America, Europe, Asia, and Central America. Jonathan E. Brockopp (1962) is Professor of History and Religious Studies at the Pennsylvania

State University. His primary research focus is on the literary remains of early Muslim cultures, including the Qur’an, hadith, legal, and theological texts. His most recent book, Muhammad’s Heirs: The Rise of Muslim Scholarly Communities (Cambridge, 2017), traces the rise of a professional scholarly community in Islam and tries to understand how these early scholars constructed their notion of religious authority. Jean Lau Chin† (1944–2020) was Professor of Psychology at Adelphi University in New York. She has held leadership roles as Dean at Adelphi University, Systemwide Dean at Alliant International University, Executive Director of South Cove Community Health Center and ­Co-Director of Thom Mental Health Clinic. She has written widely about diversity and ­leadership, including being the 2018 Fulbright Scholar and Distinguished Chair at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her books on leadership include: (Joint editor) Building Bridges to Inclusive Leadership through the Lens of Cultural Narratives (in progress); (Joint editor) Global and Culturally Diverse Leaders and Leadership: Challenges for Business, Education and Society (2017). Jay Conger is the Henry R. Kravis Chaired Professor of Leadership Studies at Claremont McKenna College. He has written 15 books on leadership topics. His most recent publication is The High Potential’s Advantage (with Allan Church) (2018). His books on charismatic leadership include The Charismatic Leader,  Charismatic Leadership in Organizations (with Rabindra Kanungo), and Charismatic Leadership in Organizations: The Elusive Factor in Organizational Effectiveness (with Rabindra Kanungo). Trajce Cvetkovski (1968) is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Business at the Australian Catholic University. He has also practiced as a Barrister-at-Law since 1996. He has written widely about the political economy of the music industry and technological change. His books include the Political Economy of the Music Industry (2007), Copyright and Popular Media (2013), and The Pop Music Idol and the Spirit of Charisma (2015) (Pop Music, Culture and Identity Series). Tim Delaney is a Professor of Sociology and co-Director of the Sports Studies Program at the State University of New York at Oswego. He has published more than 20 books, dozens of book chapters, journal and encyclopedia articles, and has been published in five continents. His books include his coauthored The Sociology of Sport, Third Edition (forthcoming 2021) and Sportsmanship: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2016, editor). He also organizes an annual sportsmanship day symposium. Carlos de la Torre (1959) is Professor and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. He has been a fellow at the Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. He is the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Global Populism, 2019; The Promise and Perils of Populism, 2015; Latin American Populism of the Twenty

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Contributors

First Century (with Cynthia Arnson, 2013). He is the author of Populisms: A Quick Immersion, and Populist Seduction in Latin America. Roger Eatwell (1949) is Emeritus Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Bath.

He has written widely about both interwar and post-1945 fascism and populism. His books include: Fascism: a History (with new Introduction, 2003); (joint editor) Charisma and Fascism in Interwar Europe (2006) and (joint author) National Populism: the Revolt against Liberal Democracy (2018). Other works include chapters on related themes in the Oxford Handbooks on: The History of Nationalism (2013); Political Ideologies (2013); Populism (2017); and The Radical Right (2018). Louisa Fink (1996) holds a PhD in Management Studies from Cambridge Judge Business School (UK) examining organizational ambidexterity in the millennial age. She completed her MSc in Organizational and Social Psychology at the London School of Economics (UK). Among her most recent works, she has coauthored the book Leadership Styles: Interviewing Prominent Leaders in Society (2018; in German). Kate Fortmueller (1982) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia. Her work on media labor appears in the journals Film History, the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, Journal of Film and Video, Media Industries, Television & New Media, and is forthcoming in The Journal of Popular Film and Television. Eva Giloi is Associate Professor in the History Department at Rutgers University-Newark. She has written on material culture and visual culture; monarchy; museums; socialization and childhood; fame, celebrity, and charisma. Her publications include Constructing Charisma: Celebrity, Fame, and Power in Nineteenth-Century Europe (2010, joint editor); Monarchy, Myth, and Material Culture in Germany, 1750–1950 (2011), and the essays: “So Writes the Hand that Swings the Sword: Autograph Hunting and Royal Charisma in the German Empire, 1861–1888” (2010) and “Copyrighting the Kaiser: Publicity, Piracy, and the Right to Wilhelm II’s Image” (2012). Jennifer Harrison (1983) is Associate Professor in HRM/OB at the Normandy Business

School. As a member of the Métis Laboratory, she conducts research on leader-follower relationships, gender, diversity, and inclusion in organizations. She has published in several leading management and psychology journals and has presented her research across North America, Europe, and China. S. Alexander Haslam (1962) is Professor of Psychology and Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on the study of leadership, group, and identity processes in organizational and health contexts. His most recent books are The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure (Routledge, 2018, with Catherine Haslam, Jolanda Jetten, Tegan Cruwys and Genevieve Dingle) and The New Psychology of Leadership (2nd ed., Routledge, 2020, with Steve Reicher and Michael Platow). Timothy Heppell (1972) is Associate Professor of British Politics at the University of Leeds. He is an expert in British Political Parties and Prime Ministerial leadership. He is the author of Choosing the Tory Leader (2008); Choosing the Labour Leader (2010); Cameron: The Politics of Modernisation and Manipulation (2019) and the coauthor of The Political Rhetoric and Oratory of Margaret Thatcher (2016). He also co-edited How Labour Governments Fall (2013).

xv

Contributors

Haroro J. Ingram (1983) is a senior research fellow with the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. His research primarily focuses on the role of propaganda and charismatic leadership in the evolution and appeal of violent non-state political movements. He is the coauthor of The ISIS Reader: Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement (Hurst/Oxford University Press) and regularly publishes in academic, policy, and media forums. Ingram is an associate fellow with the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague and a member of the RESOLVE Network Research Advisory Council at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. Aï Ito (1991) holds a PhD from NEOMA Business School and is a doctoral student at URCA (University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne) in France. She holds BS and MS degrees in Business Administration from Hitotsubashi University, Japan. Her research focuses on charismatic leadership, self-disclosure, and gender. C. Stephen Jaeger (1950) is the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor Emeritus of German, Comparative Literature, and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana/ Champaign. He has written on courtliness in the Middle Ages, courtly love, cathedral school education and European social ideals, and on charisma and art. His most recent book is Enchantment: On Charisma and the Sublime in the Arts of the West (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). Matthew D. Johnson (1975) is an independent research consultant and analyst. He was previously a historian at the University of Oxford and Grinnell College, and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Taylor’s University, Malaysia. His books include (joint editor) Maoism at the Grassroots: Everyday Life in China’s Era of High Socialism (2015) and (joint editor) Redefining Propaganda in Modern China (forthcoming). Maijastina Kahlos (1967) is a Research Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki. Her research interests broadly include Roman history, religions in the Roman Empire, and Christianization of the Mediterranean regions. Her books include Forbearance and Compulsion: The Rhetoric of Tolerance and Intolerance in Late Antiquity (2009); Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity (2020) and (editor) Emperors and the Divine: Rome and its Influence (2016). Eric Michael Kelley (1969) is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has conducted ethnographic research in eastern Paraguay and is the author of “The Routinization of Improvisation in Avá-Guaraní Shamanic Leadership” (2013). He advocates for indigenous rights and is the author of “Yva Poty Rising: From the Ashes, a Cause for Hope” (2013), “Y’apo: Guaraní Continue Fight for Recognition of their Land and Human Rights” (2014), and a consultant for Universal Periodic Review Reports for Paraguay to the United Nations, in collaboration with Cultural Survival. Raymond Lee (1950) was previously Associate Professor of Anthropology & Sociology at the

University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. His publications on modernity, crowds, and religion have appeared in Sociology, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Culture & Religion, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, Thesis Eleven, Third Text, and the European Journal of Social Theory. He is also the author of The Tao of Representation: Postmodernity, Asia and the West (1999) and the coauthor of The Challenge of Religion after Modernity: Beyond Disenchantment (2002, reissued 2018).

xvi

Contributors

Carl Levy (1951) is Professor of Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has written

widely on anarchism, Gramsci, and Weber. His most recent books are (joint editor), The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism (2018) and (joint editor) The Anarchist Imagination: Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and the Social Sciences (2019). Charles Lindholm (1946) is Emeritus University Professor of Anthropology at Boston University. His books include Generosity and Jealousy: The Swat Pukhtun of Northern Pakistan (1982), Charisma (1990), Is America Breaking Apart (1999 with John A. Hall), The Islamic Middle East (revised edition 2002), Culture and Identity (revised edition 2007), Culture and Authenticity 2007, The Struggle for the World (2010 with J.P. Zúquete), and The Anthropology of Religious Charisma (2013 edited volume). Amanda Lucia (1977) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. She is a historian of religions who has written widely about contemporary global circulations of Hindu religions, guru movements, charismatic authority, gender, sexuality, and race from an ethnographic and anthropological approach. Her publications include, White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals (2020), Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace (2014), and numerous articles. Elizabeth Lunbeck (1953) is Professor of the History of Science in Residence, Harvard Uni-

versity. She is the author, most recently, of The Americanization of Narcissism (2014) – asking why the question of narcissism has become so urgent in our culture – and has written widely on the history of psychoanalysis and psychiatry. She is currently writing a history of psychotherapy. Jean-Claude Monod (1970) is Senior Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). His work deals mainly with secularization and authority. Among his last books: Qu’est-ce qu’un chef en démocratie? Politiques du charisme (2012, pocket 2017 with a new afterword) and L’art de ne pas être trop gouverné (2019). Rebecca Moore (1951) is Emerita Professor of Religious Studies at San Diego State University.

She is the author of numerous articles and books on new religions, including Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple (Praeger 2018, 2nd ed.). Her most recent book is Beyond Brainwashing: Perspectives on Cultic Violence (Cambridge University Press 2018). She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. Pramod K Nayar (1970) is Professor of English at the University of Hyderabad, India. His most

recent books include Indian Travel Writing in the Age of Empire, 1830–1940 (2020), Ecoprecarity: Vulnerable Lives in Literature and Culture (2019), Bhopal’s Ecological Gothic: Disaster, PRecarity and the Ecological Uncanny (2017), and Human Rights and Literature: Writing Right (2016). Forthcoming is a book, The Human Rights Graphic Novel: Drawing It Just Right. Takis S Pappas (1960) is a Greek, US-trained political scientist associated with the University of Helsinki, Finland. Besides dozens of articles in top academic journals, he has authored Making Party Democracy in Greece (1999), The Charismatic Party: PASOK, Papandreou, Power (2009, in Greek), Populism and Crisis Politics in Greece (2014), Populism and Liberal Democracy: A Comparative and Theoretical Analysis (2019), and co-edited European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession (2015).

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Contributors

Kim  Peters is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on social influence processes (including communication and leadership) in social and organizational settings. Her work has been published in leading journals in social psychology and management science, and she works closely with organizations to examine the role of psychological factors in organizational functioning. John Potts is Professor of Media at Macquarie University, Sydney. He has written widely on

media studies, cultural history, and intellectual history. His books include: A History of Charisma (2009), The New Time and Space (2015), Ideas in Time: The Longue Durée in Intellectual History (2019); and (coauthored with Andrew Murphie) Culture and Technology (2003). He is also editor of the book The Future of Writing (2014) and joint editor of The Unacceptable (2013) and After the Event: New Perspectives on Art History (2010). Terry L. Price (1966) is the Coston Family Chair in Leadership and Ethics and Professor of Leadership Studies and PPEL (Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law) at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. He is author of Understanding Ethical Failures in Leadership; Leadership Ethics: An Introduction; and, most recently, Leadership and the Ethics of Influence. Erin Prophet (1966) is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at the

­ niversity of Florida. She specializes in religion and medicine. Among her publications are U “Charisma and Authority in New Religious Movements” in the Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements vol 2 (2016), and Prophet’s Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside Church Universal and Triumphant (2009). She is a coauthor with Jeffrey Kripal of Comparing Religions (2014). Paula Pryce (1964) is Lecturer in Anthropology and Research Associate at the University of

British Columbia. Her current work specializes in epistemology and ritual and performance studies among Christian monastics and non-monastic contemplatives in North America and South Asia. Pryce is the author of The Monk’s Cell: Ritual and Knowledge in American Contemplative Christianity (Oxford, 2018) and ‘Keeping the Lakes’ Way’: Reburial and the Re-creation of a Moral World among an Invisible People (University of Toronto Press, 1999). Joseph Roisman (1946) is Emeritus Professor of Classics at Colby College, US, who specialized in ancient Greek history and Greek rhetoric. His recent books include Lycurgus, Against Leocrates. Introduction and Commentary by Joseph Roisman. Translation by Michael Edwards. Clarendon Ancient History Series, Oxford University Press. 2019, and The Classical Art of Command: Eight Greek Generals Who Changed the History of Warfare. Oxford University Press. 2017. Christine Roland-Lévy (1953) is Professor in Social Psychology at the University of Reims, France. Her research focus is in applied psychology, and she has published nearly 200 scientific papers and books. She is the president of the International Association of Applied Psychology (2018–2022). She was President of two other international associations (International Association for Research in Economic Psychology, IAREP, 1997–1999; and Children’s Identity & Citizenship European Association, CiCea, 2008–2010). Sishuwa Sishuwa (1985) is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Zambia, with research and teaching interests in 19th and 20th century African History. His latest works, xviii

Contributors

published in the Journal of Southern African Studies, include “ ‘A White Man Will Never Be a Zambian’: Racialised Nationalism, the Rule of Law, and Competing Visions of Independent Zambia in the Case of Justice James Skinner, 1964–1969” (2019) and “Surviving on Borrowed Power: Rethinking the Role of Civil Society in Zambia’s Third-Term Debate” (2020). Philip Smith (1964) is Professor of Sociology and co-Director of the Center for Cultural Soci-

ology at Yale University. His books include Cultural Theory (2001); The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim (co-editor, 2005); Why War? (2005), Punishment and Culture (2008), Incivity (coauthor, 2010), Climate Change as Social Drama (coauthor, 2015), and After Durkheim (2020). Niklas Steffens (1983) is Lecturer and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at the

University of Queensland. His work focuses on the contribution of identity processes to leadership and followership as well as health and well-being in social, organizational, and sports contexts. His research on leadership has uncovered how shared social identity can serve as a basis for leader-follower relationships, including leader charisma. Benjamin Tur (1991) holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Lausanne. He trains leaders to speak in public and has written on leadership and charisma. He is a coauthor of the book Leaderspritz (2018), a reviewer for The Leadership Quarterly, and he has published articles in specialized academic journals. Rolf van Dick (1967) is Professor of Social Psychology at Goethe University, Frankfurt (Germany) where he also serves as Vice President. He has published several books and almost 200 papers in academic journals, mostly on applications of social identity theory on organizational topics such as mergers and acquisitions, leadership, and health and well-being. Ronald F. White (1951) earned a PhD in the History of Science and Medicine from the Uni-

versity of Kentucky. He has been teaching philosophy and ethics courses at Mount St. Joseph University, in Cincinnati for over 30  years. He  is an interdisciplinary scholar who  has published over 100 journal articles, book reviews, and book chapters across a variety of topics and disciplines. Tom F. Wright (1981) teaches English and American Studies at the University of Sussex. He

is the author of Lecturing the Atlantic: Speech, Print and an Anglo-American Commons (2017) and the editor of Transatlantic Rhetoric: Speeches from the American Revolution to the Suffragettes (2020) and The Cosmopolitan Lyceum: Lecture Culture and the Globe in Nineteenth Century America (2013). He is writing a book called Primitive Charisma about the prehistory of Weber’s idea.

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Acknowledgments

When, in January of 2018, I first told Gerhard Boomgaarden, senior publisher at Routledge at the time, about my plan to put together a unique, interdisciplinary, well-rounded Handbook of Charisma, I was met with an enthusiastic approval of the project. Three years later – with a few bumps along the way, including delays, and a few chapters dropped for a variety of reasons – the project is finally concluded with an overall sense of reward. I want to thank both Gerhard for his support and encouragement and Mihaela Diana Ciobotea, the editorial assistant on the Sociology list at Routledge, for her diligence and efficiency. I also want to thank Balaji Karuppanan for all the help throughout the production process of the Handbook. Thanks are also due to the two anonymous reviewers who – after assessing the proposal – gave their unconditional approval. Because of the magnitude of the project – particularly the fact that it covers many areas of research and fields of study – the advice and comments by outside referees was essential and to them – 29 in total – I express my recognition and gratitude. Lastly, to all 46 authors, specialists in each of their fields and from different places and universities across the world, I want to thank you for your professionalism, competence, patience at many of my requests and queries, and, more crucially, dedication to writing chapters that, I believe, will be a reference in the study of charisma for many years to come.

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Introduction The study of charisma José Pedro Zúquete

In various forms, historians, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, business and management specialists, and theologians, as well as scholars of entertainment and media studies, research charisma. The phenomenon also continues to attract considerable interest among students, practitioners, policy makers, and media professionals. The Routledge International Handbook of Charisma casts light on classical approaches to the study of charisma while also highlighting recent advances from scholars and thinkers in various academic disciplines around the world. By drawing together leading experts in the field of charisma studies, the Handbook examines key conceptual, methodological, theoretical, and empirical issues while delivering authoritative approaches from these various disciplines to the study of charisma. For the last few decades, this scholarly activity focused upon charisma has been at the center of many discussions, theorizations, and empirical demonstrations. Its study, of course, began roughly 100 years ago when Max Weber, influenced especially by the work of the jurist and theologian Rudolph Sohm, took the concept of charisma from its original theological context as a “gift of grace” in the Christian New Testament and made it operational in the historical and social domain as a sociological concept. Even though, as this comprehensive volume will illustrate, writers before Weber had formulated theoretical accounts of the phenomenon of charismatic leadership (without invoking the term charisma) and the ways in which leaders win over followers using powerful convincing means with examples that stretch back at least to antiquity, Weber took the decisive step in employing the term charisma within the world of social sciences and in the development of the notion of charisma – together with tradition and law – as a basis for the exercise of power. It can be argued that Weber was much stronger in his depiction of charismatic authority than about depicting charisma itself. The question of whether charisma was inborn (as a set of personality traits) or the result of an attribution by followers would remain somewhat open. Other contemporaries of Weber – such as Durkheim and Freud, with their work on group belonging and ecstatic states – have contributed to the study of charisma (hence the Handbook acknowledges their status as “classical theorists” of the concept), and have given rise to explanations of charismatic phenomena that thrive today; it is not an overstatement to say that the Weberian portrait of charismatic authority became the default position of subsequent studies and research on the topic. These studies had to incorporate – whether to accept, contest, complement, or reformulate – his analysis of charisma as major type of legitimate domination. Thus, such “dialogue” with Weber is present, to varying degrees, throughout the chapters assembled in this volume. 1

José Pedro Zúquete

Certainly, the religious origins of charisma cast a long shadow over Weber’s own work on it; the persistence of religious overtones is unmistakable. The leader, whose powers are not accessible to the ordinary person, is perceived by followers to be almost superhuman, the followers blindly follow the mission, and the charismatic bond is based not on reason but primarily on raw emotional power. Not surprisingly, Weber’s prototypical charismatic leader was the shaman, who bestowed healing gifts on the community. Also, even though Weber had attributed charisma to modern political figures, many of his paradigmatic examples of charismatic authority antedate the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the onslaught of secularization, when the religious sphere was arguably more central to the life of communities. Religious institutions both within and outside the West are, therefore, picture-perfect for the study of charisma. In terms not only of the attribution of exceptional, even seemingly divine powers to a founder or leader but also in regard to the ritualistic, performative, and soteriological dynamics that characterize and mobilize the charismatic community, the study of charisma will be thoroughly analyzed in this volume. This applies not only to the Abrahamic religions but also to religions such as Hinduism, where the Weberian notion of charisma is not limited to humans but also expresses itself in nonhuman entities and the material world. There is also the matter that although Weber was forceful in his description of such a type of charismatic authority as an ideal type, not as a mirror-image of reality but as an exaggeration of nevertheless essential features of reality, it became almost too easy for scholars both to associate this classical definition of charisma with a bygone era of an enchanted world and to dissociate it with modern, secular, disenchanted times. Ironically, charisma was deemed inapplicable to a disenchanted world whose coming of age was powerfully explained by Weber himself in his philosophy of history. In a refinement of the irony, the discrediting of Weber’s theory of charismatic leadership occurred in the last decades of a century that would be described, not without reason, as the “age of charisma” – by Arthur Schweitzer in a book of that title. According to this storyline, the early-to-mid-20th century could well be described as the last hurrah of charisma and also its last gasp. The vast literature on the interwar period, particularly in regard to authoritarianism and fascism, emphasizes the role of charisma, from regime leaders such as Mussolini or Hitler to a wide range of leaders of fascist-like movements. As the historical segment of the Handbook documents, these mass ideologies – together with communism and, later, Maoism – and their mythical, ritual, communal, fideistic, and salvationist nature are also studied as “political religions,” as examples of the sacralization of politics in the modern world; they were determined to bring about here and now their own vision of a sacred community. Having said that, it is important to bear in mind and not discount how more instrumental and materialist explanations may provide a useful lens for viewing and even complement the scholarly study of these mass ideologies, their charismatic leaders, and their allure. A similar emphasis on the sacralization of the political in the modern world – and the role played in it by charismatic leaderships – was evident in the literature on postcolonial nations, such as those in Africa. Most of these charismatic leaderships, however, emerged during extraordinary times of upheaval or revolution. In fact, leaders of long-standing democracies who acted in such moments of crisis – leaders like Churchill or Charles de Gaulle – have been also presented as case studies of charismatic leadership. Clearly, in the near or distant future, when dramatic, earthshaking, crises do emerge again – be they wars, natural disasters, plagues, or potential societal collapse and chaos – it is to be anticipated (almost as an unwritten rule in history) that the popular clamor for strong and charismatic leaders to “save” the community will emerge yet again – even if the actual advent of such a leader is never a certainty. But – such dramatic scenarios aside – what about charisma in “less exceptional” or “normal” times, in the supposedly desacralized, secular world of modern democratic politics? Especially 2

Introduction

in its Weberian formulation, charisma has many times been devalued as an explanatory concept. This tendency can be seen in two ways. On one hand, the literature of charisma studies has overwhelmingly chosen its case studies from examples of the past but has not paid the same attention to leaders acting in more stable, modern, and allegedly less-enchanted settings of liberal democracies. This is further complicated by the fact that for some writers Weber’s reading of charisma is inherently authoritarian. On the other hand, charisma has been often reproached because of its “limited empirical utility” and has been denounced as vague, imprecise, immaterial, and difficult to be analyzed (or measured), especially by political studies that aim to be increasingly scientific (read, “quantitative”). In our century, a BBC radio documentary series dedicated to the “alluring yet elusive quality that is charisma” received the title: Charisma: Pinning down the butterfly. Charisma, then, in the words of Joseph Nye, is a usable concept “only if we keep our eyes open” to its ambiguity and variability according to different contexts. According to James MacGregor Burns, a major scholar of leadership studies, charisma as a sociological concept addresses merely “an array of murky psychological needs,” which prevents it from being looked at in a serious and rational manner. Yet, bucking this trend, and particularly since the last decade of the last century, there has also been a growing academic interest in charisma, in its power, and in the dynamics associated with it. Such interest often arises in relation to issues such as the personalization of politics and parties – including a stronger, frequently media-driven, emphasis on the personalities of politicians – or the rise of populism (whether right-wing or left-wing) in modern liberal democracies. All of these issues – and others related to them, such as the ways that charisma can be a force in modern politics that is either constructive or destructive to pluralism and liberal democracy, whether charismatic leadership may be rationally and ethically defensible given modern notions of egalitarianism and of individuals as rational ends-in-themselves, or the rise of toxic leaders – are the focus of the section dedicated to the role of and challenges triggered by charisma in the realm of politics. If the coexistence of charisma with rationalized institutions and a formal legal-rational order has been met, at least for a considerable period of time, by considerable skepticism in the realm of the study of politics, it has been much more widely accepted in other fields of inquiry and research. The scholarship on extremism has been one such field, specifically in regard to the relation of charisma with violence, whether manifested in apocalyptic sects or terrorist radicalization, be it religious or political. As the authors of the section on charisma and violence make clear, charismatic leaderships and their dynamics – with a significant role played by followers – in specific circumstances, whether directly or indirectly, can result in aggression and destruction. Simultaneously, as will be abundantly shown in the Handbook, since the 1970s – and accelerating since the 1990s – a vast organizational literature on charismatic leadership has emerged that has produced some of the most multidimensional, innovative theoretical and empirical work on charisma to date and has been setting the research agenda on charismatic leadership, whether, for example, in regard to the ways that leaders signal charisma, the role of followers in charismatic leadership processes, or the ways to teach people to be more charismatic. Importantly, in the culture at large, the last few decades have witnessed a popularization of the term charisma. Charisma has become commonplace: Everyone who is popular, appealing, or gifted in sports, arts, or politics becomes in the eyes of public opinion a “charismatic” figure. Some writers have lamented the “devaluation” and “banalization” of the term charisma that this societal evolution set off. Although the origins of the celebrity phenomenon date at least to the 19th century, this consolidation of a celebrity-oriented culture – fueled by p­ opular tabloids, social media, and the public’s insatiable appetite for stardom – is at the very basis of the explosion of charisma in the popular vocabulary. The study of this everyday notion of 3

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charisma – intrinsically tied with consumerism and mass culture – and boosted by the internet – merits its own place in this volume, and experts on media, film, and entertainment explore its nature and ramifications while connecting it with the original, “more elevated” meaning of charisma. Further, they probe the ways that charisma may be “mass-produced” by entertainment industries and the role of mass media in both promoting and debunking charisma. At the same time, in this section attention is given to two areas that merit much further scrutiny: (1) the charisma of works of art and the impact of the aesthetics of charisma, and (2) the ­presence and display of charisma in the sports world. This latter is a curiously neglected research topic, especially if we think about the larger-than-life dimension – one that even transcends national borders – that professional athletes have in our societies. In fact, an important message that this Handbook promotes is that the study of charisma is an open field that is ripe with research possibilities. With this in mind, the volume ends with a section on key rising topics. One is the contribution of evolutionary leadership theory to the study of charismatic leadership, and how ancient dynamics of group selection and adaptive behavior continue to shape human psychology and people’s choice of leaders. A second is the gender studies approach, which upends the overwhelming traditional focus on male charisma by illuminating the different ways that women communicate their charisma. A third concerns the relation of charisma with the digital unive