Lecture 3 Readings Flashcards
how do leaders emerge and fall from power?
based on their relationship with followers
leadership is highly dependent on ____
language and social identity
why do leaders define ingroups and outgroups?
it allows for the mobilization of social identity
leadership and social psychological motives
Leaders need to take advantage of members’ social-psychological motives when trying to galvanize a group for action
social-psychological motives include:
- The desire for group distinctiveness
- Positive social identity
- A coherent understanding of social events
- The justification for group actions
language and social-psychological motives
The exploitation of social-psychological motives is fundamentally mediated by language
social identity is…
malleable, fluid, and contextually variable
the social identity approach to leadership on social-psychological phenomena
treats social-psychological phenomena as a reflection of social contextual realities
The social identity theory of leadership
argues that leaders emerge and are perceived as effective insofar that they provide a faithful rendition of ingroup identity concerning significant outgroups
the social identity theory on representations
- Representations are context-dependent
- Collective representations are defined by prototypes
prototypes
clusters of group-defining traits that simultaneously maximize intragroup similarities and intergroup differences associated with particular ingroup-outgroup social comparisons
Four stages of leadership (Reid & Ng):
- Leader emergence
- The stabilization of the leadership position
- Intragroup leader-follower power differentiation
- The abuse of power
language and the leadership process
Language can be used to create material power, conceal or mask the exercise of power, and contribute to making dominance appear natural
prototypicality and power
The relationship between prototypicality and the exercise of influence and power makes it possible to develop and maintain a leadership position
innovation and leadership
By engaging in innovation, the leader enhances their power bases, which can in turn be used to control the prototypical ingroup position, making it possible to secure further power bases
Reid & Ng’s main argument
- Prototypicality is the crucial resource that bonds a leader to the group, but prototypicality is realized, maintained, and stabilized through the creative and dynamic use of linguistic social categorizations;
- Linguistically constructed (yet contextually grounded) categorizations enable the leader to broaden his or her power base – both in reality (by adding reward and coercive power), and as conceived social-psychologically in the minds of followers (by adding legitimate, informational, referent, and expert power);
- The inflation of these power bases feeds back into control of the prototypical ingroup position, and thus the ability to maintain the leadership position. This is because:
a) support from followers aids the task of linguistically manipulating ingroup and outgroup prototypes (followers are more likely to ascribe to the leader’s definition of reality) such that the prototypical ingroup position remains focused upon the leader; and, b) because it makes it possible to side-line pretenders to the leadership position.
example of the linguistic construction of power
Ariel Sharon’s image as a peacemaker was linguistically and strategically constructed. He encouraged violence from Palestinians, which he then used to justify attacking them further
what is the antidote to power?
counter-power
how does the emergence of a prototypical group member occur?
actively
power of established leaders vs. new leaders
Leaders who are relatively well-established generally have greater power at their disposal than emergent leaders
how do leaders maintain their leadership?
mobilizing power and constructing and justifying its use through language
why are linguistic categorizations controlling?
- By producing an accepted categorization, the connotations that follow serve to create an image that was not produced in the initial words
- When such categorizations are widely diffused, they are controlling insofar that they produce a definition of reality
The social-cognitive and power differentiation of the leader from followers leads to ___
an embryonic intergroup categorization that transforms the leader-follower relationship into an intergroup relation
how does a leader gain more power?
by successfully mobilizing the group concerning relevant outgroups
what happens when a leader gains more power?
the leader becomes more likely to subscribe to an intergroup categorization
what happens when a leader feels sufficiency threatened?
the exercise of power can shift from the normative social influence that flows from group consensus to a direct, unmasked attempt to maintain a position through force
how is traditional power exercised?
within the confined of an ingroup normative consensus
the shift to naked power
the shift from normative influence to coercion
language and naked power
Language is crucial to the exercise of naked power because it is needed to construct the ”other” and justify the use of power
diversity and Canadian identity
Diversity is a key feature of Canadian identity
representation and identity
The selection of our representatives reflects who we are
democratic deficit
the decline of our democratic institutions
cities
important centres of electoral and political activity
literature on women in politics vs. visible minorities in politics
The literature on women in politics is well-developed but there is little research on immigrants and minorities in politics
why do some argue that women are more present in municipal government than federal/provincial government
Some argue that women are more present at the municipal level of government because of the geographic proximity to one’s home and the absence of political parties in municipal elections (except for Montreal and Vancouver)
what jurisdictions do some argue that women and immigrants might be drawn to?
provincial jurisdictions around health policies and child care programs might draw women while federal jurisdictions around immigration and foreign policy may appeal to immigrants
what capital is relevant for electoral politics?
Human, economic, and social capital
Challenges of examining diversity in politics:
- There is limited empirical evidence to explain individuals’ motivations for getting involved in electoral office
- It is not clear whether one underrepresented group’s motivations are the same as another’s
- Some of the earlier findings in this field don’t necessarily continue to hold
diverging experiences of diversity
There is no single experience with diversity and its representation in the electoral arena
ethnicity
one’s ancestral origins, whether ethnic or cultural
visible minorities
all people other than Indigenous people who are non-Caucasian in race and non-white in colour
criticisms of the term visible minority
Some suggest this term is divisive and imprecise
what two dimensions does Statistics Canada use to assess Indigenous identity?
- One’s Indigenous ancestry (largely based on blood)
- One’s feeling of Indigenous identity
immigrant
someone who was born outside of Canada and has been granted the right to live permanently in the country
second-generation immigrants
the Canadian-born children of immigrants
proportionality index
a tool to facilitate comparisons between the general population and the elected officials on variables of interest
how is proportionality index calculated?
Calculated by taking the proportion of a particular demographic group within elected office and dividing that by the proportion of that demographic group in the general population
interpreting proportionality index
- A score of 1.00 is an indicator of perfect proportionality
- Anything about 1.00 indicates over representation
- Anything below 1.00 indicates under representation
prevalence of proportionality
Disproportionality in representation is more the norm than proportionality
what does one’s conception of representation influence?
the decision that are made and how they are made
direct democracy today
While we have moved to a representative democracy, there are still models of direct democracy in the world, such as in some Brazilian cities
direct democracy within representative democracy
There are some spaces for direct democracy within a system of representative democracy (ex. referendums)
representative democracy
citizens select through the electoral process those whom they would like to represent them in decisions
what type of democracy is rooted in the franchise
representative democracy
franchise
one’s right to vote
how do we define the franchise?
There are many ways to define the franchise
historical exclusions from the franchise
Many of the groups who were excluded from the franchise historically remain underrepresented today (ex. women, young adults, Indigenous and racialized people)
debates surrounding the franchise today
Questions about who should be allowed to vote remain (ex. Allowing 16- & 17-year-olds to vote)
Perspectives on the relationship between voters and their representatives:
delegate & trustee model
delegate model
representatives are viewed as the voice of the people and are elected to bring the wishes of their constituents to the decision-making arena
criticisms of the delegate model
Rigid and assumes representatives will have the means and ability to accurately gauge and bring forward the views of their constituents
trustee model
representatives are trustees who have some autonomy to make decisions based on the common good, even when this might clash with the wishes of their constituents
importance of symbolic representation
Symbolic representation must go beyond tokenism and famous firsts
two types of representation
mirror & substantive representation
mirror representation
representatives who merely look like their constituents
substantive representation
representatives who make decisions that are in the interests of those they represent, whether those are their constituents or the individuals who belong to their group
what is required for mirror representation?
elected officials must share similar characteristics to those of the population
homogenous representative bodies
- Legislative bodies made up entirely of middle-aged White men make us uncomfortable
- This indicates we feel some degree of numerical representation is necessary
critical mass
the suggestion that simply being elected with certain characteristics doesn’t mean that one can be effective in acting for people who share those characteristics
female politicians and women’s equality
Research suggests that women are somewhat more likely to take positions favourable to women’s equality
racial minority politicians and racial equality
Representatives from minority backgrounds won’t necessarily espouse positions that reflect the views of those from their communities
the Canadian elected official archetype
The archetype of the Canadian elected official is male, White, middle-class, middle-aged, Christian, Canadian-born, and majority language-speaking
the new Canadian elected official archetype
We are seeing emerging archetypes of greater diversity
how is religion measured?
in terms of one’s religious affiliation (self-identification)
