The Rise and Role of Charismatic Leaders

• Published date: 01 March 1965
• Date: 01 March 1965
• DOI: 10.1177/000271626535800109
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Rise and Role of Charismatic Leaders
By ANN RUTH WILLNER and DOROTHY WILLNER
ABSTRACT: The charismatic leader is distinguished from other
leaders by his capacity to inspire loyalty toward himself as the
source of authority, apart from an established status. Charis-
matic appeal is validated through the perceptions of the fol-
lowers. Its possession depends upon the leader’s ability to
draw upon and manipulate the body of myth in a given culture
and the actions and values associated with these myths. At-
tributes of the charismatic leader tend to vary from society to
society. In new states the breakdown of traditional and co-
lonial-legal systems of authority produces conditions of uncer-
tainty conducive to the emergence of charismatic leadership.
Through strategies of cultural management, the charismatic
leader legitimizes his claims by associating with himself the
sacred symbols of the culture. Disintegration of nationalist
unity after independence often makes incompatible the simul-
taneous pursuit of the two goals of political development: the
consolidation of the state and the growth of central government
capacity to modernize. Charismatic appeal is initially concen-
trated on and contributes to the achievement of national co-
hesion.
Ann R. Willner, Ph.D., Princeton, New Jersey, is a Research Associate of the Center of
International Studies of Princeton University. She spent six years (1952-1958) in South-
east Asia, where she served as adviser to the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
National Planning Bureau and did research on problems of industrialization for the Uni-
versity of Chicago Research Center in Economic and Cultural Change. Many of her ar-
ticles on her subject area have appeared in various scholarly journals.
Dorothy Willner, Ph.D., New York City, is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at
Hunter College of the City University of New York. She has served as a United Nations
technical assistance expert in Mexico, has worked in Israel and Ecuador, and is the author
of a forthcoming book: "Paradox, Ambiguity, and Change: The Structure of Rural Immi-
grant Absorption and Community Formation in Israel," as well as of articles in scholarly
journals.
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78
HE
term &dquo;charismatic leader&dquo; has
ismatic leadership appears and what it
T recently attained widespread and
can or cannot contribute to political
almost debased currency. In the past,
change.
it was occasionally applied to Gandhi,
Max Weber adapted the term cha-
Lenin, Hitler, and Roosevelt.
Now
risma 4 from the vocabulary of early
nearly every leader with marked popu-
Christianity to denote one of three types
lar appeal, especially those of new
of authority in his now classic classifica-
states, is indiscriminately tagged as
tion of authority on the basis of claims
charismatic.
In the absence of clear-
to legitimacy. He distinguished among
cut specifications of traits of person-
( 1 ) traditional authority, whose claim
ality or behavior shared by the many
is based on &dquo;an established belief in the
and apparently diverse men 2 to whom
sanctity of immemorial traditions,&dquo; (2)
charisma has been attributed and of
rational or legal authority, grounded on
any inventory of the common charac-
the belief in the legality of rules and in
teristics of the publics who have been
the right of those holding authoritative
susceptible to charismatic appeal, it is
positions by virtue of those rules to
not surprising that scholars should ques-
issue commands, and (3) charismatic or
tion the meaning and utility of the con-
personal authority, resting on &dquo;devotion
cept of charismatic leadership.3
to the specific sanctity, heroism, or ex-
To avoid such indiscriminate and
emplary character of an individual per-
therefore meaningless use of the term,
son, and of the normative pattern or or-
we should know what is or should be
der revealed by him.&dquo; 5
included in the category of charismatic
Of these types-and it must be em-
leadership to distinguish it from other
phasized that they are &dquo;ideal types&dquo; or
forms of leadership. Such knowledge
abstractions-charismatic authority, ac-
might help us recognize whether the
cording to Weber, differs from the other
phenomenon-as distinct from the term
two in being unstable, even if recurrent,
-has really been particularly frequent
and tending to be transformed into one
in recent years. If it has, it is impor-
of the other two types.6 While elements
tant to understand how and when char-
4 The term is of Greek origin, meaning
1 When a recent book groups together as
&dquo;gift,&dquo; and was originally identified as a &dquo;gift
&dquo;charismatic statesmen&dquo; Sukarno, Abdul Rah-
of grace&dquo; or a divinely inspired calling to serv-
man, Macapagal, Diem, Sihanouk, Captain
ice, office or leadership.
Kong Le, General Ne Win and the King of
5 Max Weber, The Theory of Social and
Thailand, one wonders whether every leader
Economic Organization, ed. by Talcott Parsons
who achieves any sort of prominence in South-
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1947),
east Asia is
automatically charismatic or
p. 328.
whether Southeast Asia simply boasts a per-
e This notion of transformation or &dquo;routini-
petually charismatic climate. See Willard A.
zation&dquo; has led to criticism that Weber uses
Hanna, Eight Nation Makers: Southeast Asia’s
the concept of charisma ambiguously, that is,
Charismatic Statesmen (New York: American
on the one hand as a characteristic of certain
Universities Field Staff, 1964).
classes of people in certain situations, on the
2 Peron, Nehru, Ben Gurion, Nkrumah,
other as a more general quality that can be
Magsaysay, Churchill, DeGaulle, Sukarno,
transmitted to and identified with institutions
Castro, Tour6, Lumumba, Eisenhower, Ken-
such as the family and the office; see Ibid., p.
yatta, Kennedy, and Khrushchev are just a
75 and Carl J. Friedrich, &dquo;Political Leadership
few of the political leaders who have been
and the Problem of Charismatic Power,&dquo; The
called charismatic in recent years.
Journal of Politics, 23 (February 1961), p. 13.
3 See K. J. Ratnam, &dquo;Charisma and Political
Such criticism overlooks the possibility that
Leadership,&dquo; Political Studies, Vol. XII, No.3 3
during the course of .charismatic leadership, a
(October 1964), pp. 341-354 for one of the
transfer can be effected of aspects of the be-
more cogent critiques of contemporary uses
lief induced by the leader toward another ob-
of the concept.
ject, especially if designated by him.

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79
of charismatic authority may be present
term can be properly applied to leaders
in all forms of leadership,7
7
the pre-
whose &dquo;call&dquo; neither comes from God
dominantly charismatic leader is distin-
nor can be considered divinely inspired
guished from other leaders by his ca-
in the specifically religious sense. On
pacity to inspire and sustain loyalty and
the grounds that one ought not to class
devotion to him personally, apart from
together the works of a Luther and a
his office or status. He is regarded as
Hitler, they deplore Weber’s extension
possessing supernatural or extraordinary
of an originally Christian concept to in-
powers given to few to have. Whether
clude leaders who are seized with and
in military prowess, religious zeal, thera-
communicate a darkly secular fervor.10
peutic skill, heroism, or in some other
As individuals, we can commend the mo-
dimension, he looms &dquo;larger than life.&dquo;
tives of those who wish to distinguish
He is imbued with a sense of mission,
on moral or esthetic grounds between
felt as divinely inspired, which he com-
men whose mission leads to Heaven and
municates to his followers. He lives not
men whose mission leads to Hell.
But
as other men. Nor does he lead in ex-
as social scientists we must recognize
pected ways by recognized rules.. He
that the empirical or earthly manifesta-
breaks precedents and creates new ones
tion of inspired and inspiring leadership
and so is revolutionary. He seems to
is one and the same whether in the
flourish in times of disturbance and dis-
service of good or evil.
tress.8
We therefore can redefine charisma-
The somewhat misleading search for
without departing from Weber’s intrinsic
the source of charisma in the personali-
intention-as a leader’s capacity to elicit
ties of such leaders may have resulted
from a following deference, devotion,
from misreading of Weber’s frequently
and awe toward himself as the source
cited definition of charisma as &dquo;a cer-
of authority. A leader who can have
tain quality of an individual personality
this effect upon a group is charismatic
by which he is set apart from ordinary
for that group. An analysis of how
men and treated as endowed with super-
leaders achieve such an effect, of the
natural, superhuman, or at least specif-
means by which and the conditions un-
ically exceptional powers or qualities.&dquo; 9
der which this kind of loyalty is gen-
For, as the words deliberately italicized
erated and maintained, might give us a
here suggest and Weber repeatedly em-
better intellectual grasp of charismatic
phasized, it is not so much what the
leadership.
leader is but how he is regarded by...