Charismatic Heads of State: The Social Context

Abstract

Weber's concept of charisma is elaborated and refined with reference to thirty-four heads of state who have held office during this century. These leaders have been systematically compared and ranked with reference to their level of charisma. Situational variables are presented, with a view to explaining the presence of charisma. The important variables, conceptu ally and statistically, are isolated. Taken together, they account for over half of the observed variance in charisma.