Leaders gain authority only by voicing the group’s unformulated intentions

Evidence

This truth, however, must become radically consequential; that is, the leaders must incarnate it, through communion with the people. In this communion both groups grow together, and the leaders, instead of being simply self-appointed, are installed or authenticated in their praxis with the praxis of the people. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 422 (#expands, via linked claim)

It is important to note that we do not wish to maintain that beyond the variables discussed so far, no other variable may play a (facilitating or inhibitory) role in the politicizing process. On the contrary, we would like to argue that it is a distinctive strength of our ideal-typical model that it enables us to incorporate such additional variables to gain a more systematic understanding of their role in the politicizing process. The role of leaders may be a case in point. Following Reicher and Hopkins (1996a, 1996b), leaders can be understood as “entrepreneurs of identity” that facilitate the various steps of the politicizing process. To the extent that they epitomize the collective “we,” they are able to facilitate the propagation of collective frames that help group members to interpret shared grievances, to identify an external enemy, and to define the wider societal context including the third party. This should be so because, by virtue of the shared group membership, the attitudes and actions of the leader are rendered normative for ordinary group members who should feel compelled to follow the leader’s example to verify their collective identity (Haslam, 2001). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4439 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Leaders become authentically installed only through communion with the people — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 422; Leaders politicize groups by embodying the shared identity that makes their frames normative — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4439

Broader Connections

• Leaders become authentically installed only through communion with the people #expands (0.85) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 422
• Leaders politicize groups by embodying the shared identity that makes their frames normative #expands (0.72) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4439