ABSTRACT
Emotion drives the wave of charismatic euphoria and the endocrinological crash of populist appeal in a remarkably formulaic and cyclical way. This cycle is represented by the ‘Life Cycle of Charismatic Populism’. The Life Cycle draws inspiration from US economist Hyman Minsk’s Credit Cycle, an elucidating theoretical commentary on the sentiment-driven, boom-and-bust nature of credit cycles, and sociologist Max Weber’s theory of charismatic authority, which similarly details the sentiment-driven, and profit-taking nature, of a leader’s ascension and swift fall from grace. In populist terms, they represent the use of pathos and charisma to encourage a groundswell of emotion, invoking the idea of a charismatic revolutionary fighting for the rights of the people whom uncaring elite have left behind. Charisma – specifically personalized charisma – is related to narcissism, where the strength of the relationship between narcissism and fraud increases in cases where a leader is also charismatic.
