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 communist phraseology the term "leaderism" occurs as a pejorative, in opposition to the officially proclaimed "principle of collective leadership".[4][5][6]

Some modern Russian authors have implied that the régimes of Mikheil Saakashvili,[7] Islamic leaders,[8] and Vladimir Putin[9] represent types of leaderist societies.

See also

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 2016-08-09. Retrieved 2016-01-25. 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 2016-01-24. Sometimes local personality cults were attributed to the backwardness of the population and 'leaderism' was treated as an ethnic disease.
  7. ^ Вирус вождизма Archived 2008-09-12 at the Wayback Machine Krasnaya Zvezda 13 August 2008 (in Russian)
  8. ^ Вожди и лидеры. Вождизм by Dmitry Olshansky (in Russian)
  9. ^ Путин играет мускулами и добивается нового мирового порядка Kommersant 19 January 2009 (in Russian)


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