Leadership of Society

Effect of Group Size

Because of the emotional dimension to change, leading is generally much easier with rather small groups. So leaders typically limit the size of groups or gravitate to certain sizes that seem workable for their various methods.
Detail

It is much easier to be a dictatorial leader with a small group like a cult or family or a platoon than a community of 20,000 souls. It is far easier to emerge as a natural leader through demonstrating ability and responding personally to member views in an organization of 50 or even 5000 staff, than in a 1 million person army. The number of subordinates of a formal leader is typically restricted to ensure management effectiveness. Something similar applies to the other types of leadership.

Societal populations typically count in the millions or even tens or hundreds of millions. Society handles change affecting such numbers through governance institutions where leadership must be oriented both to handling the general population as well as those within the governing structures. It is evident that no leader can deal with change at the societal level through purely personal influence on its members.

Humanity innately realized the power of tribalism, where people are willing aggressive upholders and even slaves of value systems (PH6L6). These are interlinked ideas order understanding within a particular social domain. They exist in practice in two forms: dominant beliefs (L6_P) and theoretical doctrines (L6_S).

See more in Ch. 4: Working with Values

The social domain of concern here is «the management of change in a society» and the relevant theoretical doctrines (value systems) are called: political ideologies. It is proposed that there are 7 fundamental ideologies because each necessarily taps into a particular depiction paradigm determining what is involved and required of the leadership and wider society.

Political Ideology

Societies are large and unwieldy, yet the masses have expectations, realistic and unrealistic, of their leaders. Central to these expectations are requirements to respond to threats and disasters and to improve living conditions generally: in other words to handle change.

As explained above, political leaders require their societies to engage with ideological frameworks on an enduring basis so as to legitimate the way they address social situations of all sorts.

Political ideologies have been developed by philosophers and social thinkers over the centuries. Like all value systems, they generate intense belief and annihilatory conflict between alternatives.

Change is rarely highlighted as the focus of a political ideology: more usually it is some aspect like the economy. social structure, societal stability or personal freedom. Nevertheless, it is evident that each ideology draws on a particular depiction paradigm and takes a corresponding position on the nature and methods of societal change and person-society relations.

The proposed allocation is shown in the TET at right, listed briefly in the Table below, and explored more fully in the next topic.

Following the French Revolution (1789) These terms were based on the seating arrangements in the French National Assembly. Supporters of the traditional order sat on the right side, while those advocating for change and a more limited monarchy sat on the left. However, the terms did not become widely used in politics until the mid-19th Century., the metaphor of a Left-Right continuum emerged. This applies to the lower 5 paradigms of the natural order, because the Atomistic paradigm neglects society, and the Unified paradigm sees a much larger and pan-ideological picture.

Model Paradigms	Left-Right Continuum	Ideology	Common Party Labels
Dynamic	Radical Left	Communism	Communist, Revolutionary socialist
Structural	Centre Left	Socialism	Socialist, Social democratic, Liberal
Causal	Centre Right	Progressivism	Progressive, Liberal,
Dualistic	Radical Right	Conservatism	Conservative, Neo-liberal, Neo-conservative
Unitary	Extreme Right	Fascism	Nationalist, Fascist

Note: Plotting these parties on to the TET shows Right-wing ideologies lie on the Domination diagonal, while the Left-wing ideologies lie on the centre section of the Evolution diagonal. More:

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Now investigate further:

• Justify allocations of ideologies to paradigms.
• Clarify essential features of the political ideologies.

Originally posted: 30-Jun-2024. Amended: 10-Jul-2024.