Political leadership in C21
June 29th 2010 01:12
One of the problems with current political leadership around the world is the high expectations of a populace brought up on the (mostly) myths of political leadership in the 20th century. Good leadership now means managing teams to achieve programmic goals. Unfortunately, this conflicts with the media's need for constant personality politics.
Rudd apparently made a big mistake when he created his 'gang of 4' kitchen cabinet and isolated the caucus and the rest of the cabinet. This model was always fraught with danger and Gillard is supposedly pursuing a more consultative mode.
But of course the ministerial talent must be there to back up the leader. Labor has always had more depth in its ministers than the Coalition, but the signs now are not so good. Tanner is going and the others are increasingly Party hacks (not unlike Gillard herself), so we'll see how that goes.
In any case its unlikely she will measure up to the standards of Curtin, Menzies and even Hawke because these men were leaders before the media came to dominate politics. They could actually set agendas and get on with them without daily undermining by media and polling.
Rudd apparently made a big mistake when he created his 'gang of 4' kitchen cabinet and isolated the caucus and the rest of the cabinet. This model was always fraught with danger and Gillard is supposedly pursuing a more consultative mode.
But of course the ministerial talent must be there to back up the leader. Labor has always had more depth in its ministers than the Coalition, but the signs now are not so good. Tanner is going and the others are increasingly Party hacks (not unlike Gillard herself), so we'll see how that goes.
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