Rising to the Call with Sound Political Leadership Research Paper

Rising to the Call with Sound Political Leadership - Research Paper Example Through wise decisions, meaningful and sincere rhetoric, and the ability to assert his authority as needed, President Abraham Lincoln was an example of a true leader within the American political landscape. Leadership in the political arena requires a certain amount of detachment from sentimentality so that decision making can be done without the burdens of emotions that will cause too long of hesitation in action. This doesn’t mean that emotions are not present, but that they can be controlled in order to act within a larger framework of the greater good. Vivian Holliday, professor of history from the College of Wooster, discusses the nature of leadership as it is presented through both Machiavelli and Socratic/Platonic principles. She states that: Machiavelli is the principal founder of a ‘realist’ theory of leadership that portrays politics as a pure struggle for power in which all moral considerations are set aside, and that focuses the theory and practice of leadership on success as measured solely in terms of the acquisition and maintenance of power and the protection and promotion of the interests of the nation-state or some other political collectivity† (Holliday 51). ... Holliday also includes in her discussion the more idealistic Socratic/Platonic concept of political leadership suggesting that it should be tempered with the Machiavellian concepts. Through this interpretation of political leadership, the leader is integrally connected to followers and to morals, his or her platform, and idealism defining a virtue with which he or she leads. Holliday states that â€Å"The rhetorical strategy of this image of the ideal philosopher-leader is again most visible when we consider critically the image of new leadership that is vested with Socratic/Platonic knowledge and virtue and that leads through dialogue and education† (63). This also suggests that beyond the connectivity to followers and morals, a good leader uses communication and academically founded intelligent consideration in leading his people through whatever conflict that arises.