Showing papers by "David D. Laitin published in 1974"
TL;DR: In the field of political science in general and in the study of international organizations in particular, leadership has been a particularly neglected concept and has served as a kind of residual category -a handy, or bothersome, exogenous variable.
Abstract: In the field of political science in general and in the study of international organizations in particular, leadership has been a particularly neglected concept. It has served as a kind of residual category -a handy, or bothersome, exogenous variable. Attempts that have been made, in the international organization context, to isolate leadership as an independent variable and to proceed with comparative analysis have, at best, centered on whether a particular leader followed certain maxims or strictures for good leadership1 or on what battery of tactics a leader may more or less successfully employ in a given context.2 No attempt has been made, however, to set the parameters for the relevance of various leadership maxims or to separate the quality of leadership from the specific kinds of resources and constraints that prevail in any given task environment. Thus, general comparison of leaders remains conceptually impossible. The purpose of this essay is to provide and illustrate a conceptual understanding of leadership that can make just such comparative
5 citations