When power changes hands: The political psychology of leadership succession in democracies

Fredrik Bynander*, Paul 'T Hart

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    25 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Leadership succession in democratic governments and political parties is an ubiquitous but relatively understudied phenomen, where the political becomes intensely personal and vice versa. This article outlines the puzzles that leadership succession poses to political analysts, reviews the literature, and offers a conceptual framework deconstructing the process in terms of a flow from succession contexts and triggers via the role choices of key participants (incumbents and aspiring successors) through to the eventual succession outcomes. It concludes by presenting a series of testable hypotheses to describe and explain leadership successions.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)707-730
    Number of pages24
    JournalPolitical Psychology
    Volume27
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2006

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'When power changes hands: The political psychology of leadership succession in democracies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this