ABSTRACT
The study of political leadership assumes that leaders do make a difference: individual political leaders exploit opportunities created by particular sets of circumstances, make choices from a number of different available options, and exercise such unfathomable personal characteristics as political skill, courage and intelligence. The desire to classify and measure political leadership articulated by Blondel and others represents an attempt to locate the study of political leadership firmly within the tradition of behavioural political science. It will be argued that crude attempts to measure the impact of Francois Mitterrand’s leadership are likely to be either subjective, banal, or both. Mitterrand derived his authority from his occupancy of the French presidency, one of the key political institutions in western liberal democracies. In the case of Mitterrand as president, it often appeared as if the greatest impact was felt in spheres unrelated to the initial goals.
