It is a natural part of social science to want to quantify those factors that are obviously of importance. leadership is one such concept. It is thought important by practitioners of politics and the public at large. Furthermore it is the subject of an increasingly coherent debate in academia.
This paper will discuss the usefulness of the Leadership Capital Index, arguing that the measure, while welcome, has flaws in measurement that relate to it not being independent of what it wants to measure. These flaws ultimately lead the theory of Leadership Capital to be unfalsifiable.
The paper will apply the LCI to recent Taoisigh (prime ministers) and other senior ficus in Irish government in Ireland, and in particular look at how the economic crisis and so some might say luck, is still a major determinant of perceived leadership performance.
