Politische Führung und Institutionen, oder: Was leistet eine institutionalistische Leadership-Forschung?

Political leadership has more recently powerfully reclaimed a prominent status in international political research. This field is widely considered to mark an exemplary case of agency-focused research, whose relevance is questioned in particular by many scholars from the discipline of comparative government with its established focus on comparing structures, rather individuals, across countries. In contrast to personality-focused contributions to leadership analysis, institutionalist approaches conceive of leadership as ‘structured agency’. While not denying the importance of individual leaders, their main focus is on identifying more general patterns of leadership across countries. The recent innovations in the theory of political institutions provide fascinating new material for thinking about leadership and institutions that reach well beyond the established agendas of institutionalist leadership research and should leave their mark on future studies in comparative political leadership. © 2014, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.