Leaderism

The Russian political term leaderism (Russian: вождизм, vozhdism) means "a policy directed at the affirmation/confirmation of one person in the role of an indisputable or infallible leader".[1] Vozhdism is widespread in totalitarian and authoritarian régimes. Manifestations of vozhdism include clientelism, nepotism, tribalism, and messianism.[2]

Ancient Greek tyranny, as described in the Politics by Aristotle,[3] represents an early form of leaderism. Forms of leaderism include Italian Fascism, Führerprinzip, Stalinism, Maoism, and Juche. According to Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948), Leninism represented a new type of leaderism, featuring a leader of masses having dictatorship powers. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini attempted to imitate Vladimir Lenin, while Joseph Stalin as vozhd exemplifies an ultimate type of such a Supreme leader.[4]

In communist phraseology the term "leaderism" occurs as a pejorative, in apposition to the officially proclaimed "principle of collective leadership".[5][6][7]

Some modern Russian authors have implied that the régimes of Mikheil Saakashvili,[8] Islamic leaders,[9] and Vladimir Putin[10] represent types of leaderist societies.

See also

References
  1. Viktor Ruchkin. S I Ozhegov, Slovar’ Russkogo Yazyka, Moscow 1978 via
  2. Вождизм article on Mir Slovarey site (in Russian)
  3. Aristotle (1999). Politics (PDF). Translator: Benjamin Jowett. Kitchener, Ontario: Batoche Books. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-07-22. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  4. Berdyaev, Nikolai. Истоки и смысл русского коммунизма [The origins and meaning of Russian communism] (in Russian). Retrieved 2016-01-25. Сталин уже вождь-диктатор в современном, фашистском смысле.
  5. Slobodan Stanković , "The End of the Tito Era: Yugoslavia's Dilemmas", 1981, p. 59
  7. Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1999). Everyday Stalinism: ordinary life in extraordinary times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 30. ISBN 9780195050004. Retrieved 2016-01-24. Sometimes local personality cults were attributed to the backwardness of the population and 'leaderism' was treated as an ethnic disease.
  8. Вирус вождизма Archived 2008-09-12 at the Wayback Machine Krasnaya Zvezda 13 August 2008 (in Russian)
  9. Вожди и лидеры. Вождизм by Dmitry Olshansky (in Russian)
  10. Путин играет мускулами и добивается нового мирового порядка Kommersant 19 January 2009 (in Russian)


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