Alive and Kicking: Elites and Leaders in a (Post) Pandemic World?

This section is sponsored by the ECPR Standing Group on Elites and Political Leadership. The panels bring together contemporary debates, traditions and trajectories that researchers who study political and social elites and leadership share. These range from those that focus on theory and method to single and large n case studies. The scope is far-reaching and considers developed and developing worlds as well as the gamut of individual actors in their capacities as elites and leaders. Drawing on the success of the previous Standing Group’s sections since 2016, we are proposing to host eight panels. First, we continue to recognize the theoretical and interdisciplinary foundations that make up the study of leaders and elites. These allow us to tackle persistent and contemporary phenomena such as gender imbalance and the toxic climate of politics for women or social identity foundations of polarisation cultivated by political leaders. Second, we further ongoing debates on the challenges facing leaders and political elites in new electoral and governance environments. In particular, the role of political leadership and scientific expertise in times of a pandemic will be the subject of one of our panels. The concomitant rise and fate of technocratic and populist leaders will make for another. A background issue will be the shadow of the new election for elected elites and the role of elections more generally. The link between elections and who actually governs will also be the background question of a panel on the personal and party loyalty of ministerial staff. Finally, we include a number of panels to keep abreast of the ongoing developments in the methods applied to, and data sources that allow for the study of elites and political leaders’ career choices and behaviour. Such data sources include comparative relational databases and candidate-based voting advice applications; a panel co-endorsed by the Research Network on Voting Advice Applications will be part of the ECPR Standing Group on Elites and Political Leadership’s section. Number Chair Discussant 1 LGBT Political Elites and Leaders, TBA, TBA 2 Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it: Branding, marketing and political elites, TBA, TBA 3 Floating or sinking boats: The electoral consequences of leadership and elite behaviour, TBA, TBA 4 Pandemic politics: The impact of COVID19 on political elites and leaders, TBA, TBA 5 Warning bells or death knells: Populist Leaders in Europe, Patrick Dumont (Australian National University), TBA 6 Trojan Workhorses: Party Loyalty and Ministerial Staff, Regis Dandoy (ULB, Belgium), TBA 7 What they say is what you do: Voting advice applications and political elites, Mathias Tromborg (Aarhus), TBA 8 We are family: Relational Databases and elite careers data sharing, Matt Kerby (Australian National University), TBA