Imagined relationships: Political leadership in contemporary democracies

The image and style of political leaders are important elements of leadersh ip, and of politics generally. They are related to both political culture a nd institutions, and are framed in ritual and ceremony. In democratic polit ies, where there is choice rather than coercion, the mediation of leadershi p/people relations creates imagined relationships between imagined leaders and their equally imagined interlocutors, the people or the electorate (who also, of course, actually exist). These relationships form part of the pol itical process. By identifying, and adapting, classical Aristotelian distin ctions in rhetorical studies, we can better understand this element or mome nt of the process, in particular the creation of an imagined intimacy in co ntemporary politics between leaders and followers. Political science should draw upon other disciplines and subdisciplines such as political psycholog y, cultural studies, rhetorical analysis, and social anthropology in order to understand how mediated relationships are inscribed into political insti tutions and exchange.