PUBLIC IMAGES OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLITICAL LEADERS - AUSTRALIAN EVIDENCE

How do citizens feel about political leaders in their own nation, or f oreign leaders like Thatcher, Reagan, Gorbachev, or Deng? And what con sequences do these views have for how citizens vote? Analysing data fr om a large, representative national sample, I show that Australian cit izens view domestic leaders mainly as figureheads for political partie s and, to a much lesser extent, as national figureheads, exemplars of ideology, and exemplars of personal virtues. As exemplars leaders have a modest but significant effect on how Australians vote. Foreign lead ers are also figureheads for political parties in their own nations an d, in nations similar to Australia, that slightly influences Australia ns' feelings about them. But foreign leaders are mainly figureheads fo r their nation: Australians project their feelings about the nation on to the leader. This is less so for nations similar to Australia and mo re so for nations remote from Australia. Foreign leaders are also ideo logical exemplars, more so for leaders of nations similar to Australia and less so for leaders of more remote nations. Foreign leaders are g enerally irrelevant to domestic voting, although there is just the sli ghtest possibility that Thatcher's demonstration of strong Conservativ e leadership had a tiny effect in Australia.