Rise of Populist Leaders: Extrinsic Motivation, Populist Rhetoric, and Perceived Authenticity of the Leader

• In Event: 2229 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable #1

Abstract

In a candidate-audience relationship, followers are expected to appreciate the authenticity of the leader, meaning that the leader’s consistency between frontstage performance and real self, and self-consistency across times and situations are rewarded. Moreover, followers are expected to attribute inauthenticity to the leaders who are motivated with extrinsic motives as it implies a mismatch between actions and the real self. However, recent research focusing on the US elections shows that, under certain conditions that are associated with the exclusion of some groups from the political system, audiences might attribute authenticity to the leaders that considerably violate traditional standards for authenticity, even lying demagogues. Building on these findings and extending them with an illustrative case about the Turkish political leadership; we aim to further highlight the conditions under which these leaders maintain their authentic appeals through discursive populism, crafted paranoias, and engineered crises, even after the disappearance of the problems associated with the initial political incorporation problems and even if they are motivated by extrinsic rewards. We argue that the leader’s transition from an ideological populism to discursive populism is key for the investigation. We propose that the groups, who had been excluded from the political system in the past, are more likely to overlook their leader’s extrinsic-award seeking agenda, even corruption, when the aggrievances of these politically excluded groups are coupled with the populist rhetoric of the leader. We lay out empirically testable propositions along with potential experimental scenarios to test these propositions. This study addresses not only the phenomenon of political victories of these “unusual” candidates but also the high likelihood of repetitions of these victories through populist manipulations, how these victories pose a challenge to traditional theories of authenticity and leadership, and the implications of the rise of populist political leaders on the broader realm of leadership.

Author

• Halil Ibrahim Sabanci, IESE Business School