ABSTRACT
The vital role of political leaders in predominantly patrimonial developing systems and the current rise in the power of political executives in many developed systems warrant a systematic study of political leadership in contemporary political science. The status of leadership studies may accurately be summed up as “past neglect, present emergence, and future potential.” Some scholars, like James MacGregor Bums, have excluded coercive forms of power and influence from leadership relationships. Exclusion of dictatorial rule from the realm of leadership is undesirable, unreal and misleading since it limits the scope of leadership relationships. The conceptual problem is compounded when one is dealing with a particular type of leadership such as political leadership. A systematic analysis of the Islamic political leadership should rely on theories that reflect the premises of a methodology which synthesizes organismic and mechanistic models of leadership studies. The concept of charisma has undoubtedly been instrumental in the study of leadership in both developed and underdeveloped systems.
