Leaderism

The Russian political term leaderism (Russian: вождизм, vozhdism) means "a policy directed at the affirmation/confirmation of one person in the role of an indisputable or infallible leader".[1] Manifestations of vozhdism include clientelism, nepotism, tribalism, and messianism.[2]

Forms of leaderism include Italian fascism, Führerprinzip, Stalinism, Maoism, and Juche. According to Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948), Leninism represented a new type of leaderism, featuring a leader of masses having dictatorship powers, while Joseph Stalin as vozhd exemplifies an ultimate type of such a supreme leader.[3]

In Marxist–Leninist phraseology, leaderism is a pejorative, in opposition to the officially proclaimed "principle of collective leadership".[4][5][6] As representative types of leaderist societies, some modern Russian authors argue include the regimes of Islamic leaders,[7] and Vladimir Putin.[8]

See also

• Autocracy
• Caesarism
• Caudillo
• Cult of personality
• Dictatorship
• Strongman
• Supreme leader

References

1. Viktor Ruchkin. S I Ozhegov, Slovar’ Russkogo Yazyka, Moscow 1978 via [1] Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
2. Вождизм article on Mir Slovarey site (in Russian)
3. Berdyaev, Nikolai. "IPage" Истоки и смысл русского коммунизма [The origins and meaning of Russian communism] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016. Сталин уже вождь-диктатор в современном, фашистском смысле.
4. Slobodan Stanković , "The End of the Tito Era: Yugoslavia's Dilemmas", 1981, p. 59
5. "The Economist". 1979.
6. Fitzpatrick, Sheila (4 March 1999). Everyday Stalinism: ordinary life in extraordinary times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s. Oxford University Press, USA (published 1999). p. 30. ISBN 9780195050004. Retrieved 24 January 2016. Sometimes local personality cults were attributed to the backwardness of the population and 'leaderism' was treated as an ethnic disease.
7. Вожди и лидеры. Вождизм by Dmitry Olshansky (in Russian)
8. Путин играет мускулами и добивается нового мирового порядка Kommersant 19 January 2009 (in Russian)