ABSTRACT
‘Party personalisation of leadership’ can have an impact in two ways. That impact can occur because the leader is able to help his or her party to affect ‘directly’ the citizens, in particular at elections; it can also occur ‘indirectly’ because the leader is able to move his or her party in a policy direction which enables that party to be more appealing to the electorate. Both ‘components’ of the influence of personalised leaders need to be taken into account if one is to assess realistically the overall role of these leaders: these two ‘components’ can be referred to as, on the one hand, the personal power held in the party by some leaders and, on the other, the ability of some leaders to boost the strength of their party in the nation. 1 The effect of the personalisation of leaders in political parties has thus to be assessed in terms of the extent to which some of them achieve these goals more or less successfully.
