Few aspects of public life are scrutinized and debated as intensely as leadership. It is crucial to the welfare of nations, the survival of political parties, and the functioning of interest groups and public corporations. And, as this volume demonstrates, political leadership is both a complex and elusive quality.

In twelve provocative, state-of-the-art essays, leading scholars in political science explore the meaning of political leadership from the shifting, kaleidoscopic perspectives of the leaders, institutions, goals, procedures, problems, and traditions involved. The approaches, as...