L. Helms 
Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors 
Executive Leadership in Western Democracies

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.

Table of Content

List of Tables and Figures List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements PART I: INTRODUCTION Studying Executive Leadership PART II: PATTERNS OF CORE EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP The United States: Variations of Presidential Predominance Britain: Prime Ministers, Cabinets, and the Struggle for Supremacy Germany: Chancellor Dominance and Coalition Rule PART III: EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE WIDER POLITICAL PROCESS The United States: Providing Leadership in an ‘Anti-Leadership Environment’ Britain: Executive Leadership from the Top Germany: Governing a ‘Semi-sovereign’ State PART IV: CONCLUSION Making Sense of Complexity: Comparative Perspectives and Conclusions Notes References Index

About the author

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.