Leadership and style in the French Fifth Republic: Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency in historical and cultural perspective

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article contributes to the body of the developing theoretical research in leadership and presidential studies by adding analysis of what I have termed ‘comportmental style’ as a factor in leader/follower relations. Within institutionalism and the wider structure/agency debate in political science, one of the challenges as regards the study of leadership is to identify factors that offer scope to or else militate against leaders’ performance. The comportmental style of Nicolas Sarkozy (President of the French Republic 2007–2012), deployed in the context of the – changing – institution of the presidency, was a major factor in his extreme unpopularity, and contributed to his defeat in 2012. What this tells us about the nature of the changing French presidency and the role of style will be discussed in the conclusion.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)345-363
Number of pages19
JournalFrench Politics
Volume10
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2012

Bibliographical note

This is a pre-print of an article published in French politics. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Gaffney, J. (2012). Leadership and style in the French Fifth Republic: Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency in historical and cultural perspective. French politics, 10(4), 345-363 is available online at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/fp/journal/v10/n4/full/fp201218a.html

Keywords

  • leadership theory
  • France
  • Sarkozy
  • president

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Leadership and style in the French Fifth Republic: Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency in historical and cultural perspective'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this