Humbuggery and manipulation : the art of leadership / F.G. Bailey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bailey, F. G. (Frederick George)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Leadership--Moral and ethical aspects.

Leadership.

Power (Social sciences).

Political leadership--Moral and ethical aspects.

Political leadership.

Physical Description:

xiv, 187 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1988.

Summary:

Must all leaders have dirty hands? Must they all defy the moral and intellectual conventions of their own societies? Building on his earlier books, F. G. Bailey tackles these questions as he takes a hard look at political leadership and concludes that it is a difficult art which inevitably involves chicanery. "My intentions are modest," he writes: "to demonstrate that there is a dark side to leadership; to show that it is found everywhere and at all times; to encourage people to open the closet, whenever they get a chance, and find out what is really hidden in there; and, finally, perhaps even to urge compassion for those intrepid and (sad to say) indispensable people who allow their souls to be corrupted by the exercise of power." To illuminate the moral and social limits of leadership around the world, Bailey draws on examples from his own research in Orissa, Europe, and elsewhere, from his work on bureaucracies, and from political and military biographies, novels, and historical accounts. He carries his controversial argument into two domains: that of the leader and his mass following and that of the leader in his entourage. Dealing with the masses, he asserts, calls for both simplification of issues and falsification of capacities and attainments; the leader's world is a world of image-making and humbug. He explains how these techniques work and why they find an accepting (if not always gullible) audience. He demonstrates how manipulation and intimidation can control an entourage, and he shows how such reputedly decent leaders as Franklin Roosevelt, Churchill, and even Gandhi used these strategems just as readily as did other, less reputable leaders. Recent American political scandals only serve to underline the timeliness of Bailey's subject and to support his theory of the persistence of "humbuggery." With its highly distinctive point of view, this book is sure to interest -- and may well outrage -- anthropologists, political scientists, psychologists, and other interested observers of the political scene.

Contents:

1 Understanding Leadership 1

The Question of Virtue 1

Styles of Domination and of Leadership 7

2 The Disposition to Follow 11

Good and Bad Followers 11

Loss of Nerve 13

The Regimented Disposition 20

The Mature Disposition 25

Anarchic Dispositions 29

The Plasticity of Dispositions 33

3 Values, Beliefs, and Leadership 36

Is Culture King? 37

The Power of Office and Personal Power 46

Causes 54

4 Formal Organizations and Institutions 60

Organizations and Institutions 61

Formal Organizations 63

Informal Organization 66

Incentives and Commitment 72

Types of Incentive 74

Levels of Directive Activity 78

5 The Creation of Trust 82

The Familial Style 83

The Numinous Style 88

Numen and Its Contexts 91

6 Disruptive Leadership 100

Numenification 101

The Disruptive Style 103

The Scope of Numenification 116

7 The Creation of Uncertainty 121

The Need for an Entourage 121

Moral and Instrumental Techniques of Control 123

Uncertainty and Discord 125

The Entourage as a Threat 130

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men 137

8 Political Science and Political Magic 147

Enchantment 148

The Disillusioned 154

9 "Seek Ye First the Political Kingdom" 160

Heroes or Puppets? 160

Make-Believe or Hard Reality? 162

Metacultural Heroism 165

Humbuggery 168.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 176-181.

ISBN:

0801421543

0801494877

OCLC:

17478286