The Revival of Charisma: Experimental Evidence From Argentina and Venezuela

Abstract

Scholars have long claimed that political movements founded by charismatic leaders must undergo “routinization,” or depersonalization, to survive. Yet many such movements appear to have sustained their charismatic nature and have persisted or reemerged in cases as diverse as Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Turkey, and China. Focusing on Argentine Peronism and Venezuelan Chavismo, this article examines the potential of new leaders to revive their charismatic predecessors’ legacies to perpetuate the movement and gain the followers’ support. Through face-to-face survey experiments conducted in both countries, the article shows that new leaders who (a) implement bold, initially impressive policies and (b) symbolically tie themselves to the charismatic founder cause citizens to express stronger emotional attachments to the movement and garner political support. The results challenge the notion that charismatic movements are short-lived and underscore the potential of these movements to impact democratic politics and party-system development long after their founders disappear.

Pronoun Usage as a Measure of Power Personalization: A General Theory with Evidence from the Chinese-Speaking World

“…The second mechanism is the inclusive group identity ‘we’, which draws legitimacy from what the people want. This figures prominently among populist leaders – with their unorganized mass support (Weyland 2001), linkages with the legacies of charismatic leaders (Andrews-Lee 2019), and their calls to destroy representative and judicial institutions (Seligson 2007). Their anti-elite rhetoric is characterized by the use of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ (see Waisbord 2011) – and where ‘“I” becomes ‘we’ as the people are envisioned as a generalized entity subject to the same conditions and frustrations as the individual” (Taggart 2002, 74; quoted in Spruyt, Keppens and Van Droogenbroeck 2016, 338).…”

“…The first is the exclusive royal ‘we’: the leader has a divine-like right to speak for the people (see Windsor, Dowell and Graesser 2014). The other is the inclusive group identity ‘we’: the leader speaks with the people (Andrews-Lee 2019; Waisbord 2011). In his famous last speech in 1989, Romania's Ceausescu remarked, ‘ We decided to increase minimum pensions from 800 to 900 lei.…”