Leadership around the world

On a sunny June day in northwestern Namibia, two Jepson School of Leadership Studies professors asked a Himba woman about leadership and social hierarchy in her tribal community. The semi-nomadic, pastoralist Himba people adhere to a traditional form of leadership in which the eldest man leads his clan.  

Czech-born political scientist Vladimir Chlouba, an assistant professor of leadership studies, was in Namibia researching traditional leadership in sub-Saharan Africa. Joining him was anthropologist and associate professor of leadership studies Christopher von Rueden, who is collaborating with other scholars on a cross-cultural project analyzing egalitarianism in rural, small-scale societies in Namibia, Tanzania, and Bolivia.

“Traditional leaders are not elected and don’t necessarily have superior expertise,” Chlouba said. “Nevertheless, people follow them. Is it an ideal way of governing? Probably not. But because traditional leaders often are capable of commanding respect and getting things done, they may offer the most viable way of governing societies in weak states. I am trying to determine why some traditional leaders are more effective than others.”

For his part, von Rueden seeks to understand why some rural, small-scale societies practice sharing, status leveling, and relative wealth parity. “Do people have equality preferences in more egalitarian, subsistence-based societies?” he asked. “Do they willingly give what they have to others and more generally limit inequality because they really care about others or is it that they don’t want to be perceived as stingy? Understanding the answers to these questions will help us understand why human politics varies across societies.”

In a rapidly globalizing world, this kind of faculty research on leadership in international contexts is increasingly relevant. Take, for another example, assistant professor of leadership studies and sociology Bo Yun Park’s timely research on how French, American, and South Korean presidential campaigns craft their messaging.

“Research shows the spread of social media is contributing to shifts in presidential leadership scripts,” said the South Korean native. “France had a vertical, top-down model of presidential leadership. The U.S. had a horizontal model — the president as the guy you’d like to have a beer with. I theorize that social media is moving us toward an entrepreneurial model of presidential leadership. We saw a businessman turned politician in the 2016 U.S. presidential election of Donald Trump. At a 2020 Texas rally, Trump told the crowd: ‘If I were presidential, no one would be here. I’m campaigning on the idea that I’m not presidential.’”

Also timely is assistant professor of leadership studies Guzel Garifullina’s recent research on how people discuss the economic sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, she uses U.S. and Russian social media data to examine the connection between people’s emotions and their political attitudes about the sanctions. She also studies how those attitudes are affected by a free versus state-controlled press.

“Politicians often use emotionally charged language to promote certain policy positions,” said the Russian-born political scientist. “Putin’s rhetoric affects the entire country because his regime controls the media narrative. Russian elites promote the idea that sanctions are useless, an opinion associated with anger. The ability to influence public opinion differs between democracies and authoritarian regimes based on the ability to control the media.”   

Assistant professor of leadership studies Volha Chykina, a native of Belarus, spent the last year conducting a cross-national study on the effects of populism on academic freedom. “My research points to a correlation between increases in populism and decreases in STEM research and academic freedom,” she said. “I argue that academic freedom should be seen not only as an individual right, but also as a public good.”

“We live in a globalized world," she added. "University of Richmond students tend to be interested in international contexts, and many come here for the great study-abroad opportunities. We can learn much about how to improve things in America by studying other countries.”