Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Studying Executive Leadership

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 3-23

3. Patterns of Core Executive Leadership

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. The United States: Variations of Presidential Predominance

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 27-57

   3. Britain: Prime Ministers, Cabinets and the Struggle for Supremacy

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 58-89

   4. Germany: Chancellor Dominance and Coalition Rule

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 90-123

4. Executive Leadership in the Wider Political Process

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 125-125

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   2. The United States: Providing Leadership in an ‘Anti-Leadership Environment’

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 127-160

   3. Britain: Executive Leadership from the Top

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 161-190

   4. Germany: Governing a ‘Semi-sovereign State’

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 191-222

5. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 223-223

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   2. Making Sense of Complexity: Comparative Perspectives and Conclusions

      • Ludger Helms

      Pages 225-261

6. Back Matter

   Pages 262-315

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How have the American presidency, the British premiership and the German chancellorship changed over the last half-century? Has there been convergence or divergence in the development of political leadership in the United States and in the two largest democracies of Western Europe? And what difference can individual leaders make in an ever-more complex political environment? Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors addresses these questions by looking at the leadership performance of more than two dozen American presidents, British prime ministers and German chancellors of the post-1945 period. In so doing, it offers a unique perspective on the nature of executive leadership in Western democracies that takes into account both the international and the historical dimension of comparison.

• complex
• complexity
• development
• environment
• Europe
• executive
• German
• Germany
• nature
• political process
• state

'Ludger Helms expands our knowledge of presidents and prime ministers by this systematic comparison of two different types of parliamentary leaders, the British prime minister and the German chancellor, and the American president. The comparison is thoroughly grounded in political science concepts and literature in two continents, and in research on the ground.' - Richard Rose, University of Strathclyde, UK

'The study of the executive and of leadership within it remains curiously understudied. Ludger Helms has provided an empirically rich and theoretically informed book which will greatly help all students of comparative government.' - Gillian Peele, University of Oxford, UK

• Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

  Ludger Helms

LUDGER HELMS is Heisenberg Fellow and Academic Visitor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He has held previous appointments at Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Heidelberg and at Humboldt University, Berlin.

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