Strong leadership signals the weakness of the underlying social movement

Evidence

More importantly, leaderism often was more of a symptom than a cure. Rather than mere logistical expediency, populism’s dependence on the leader might even testify “precisely to the lack, the weakness, of the social movement of which the leader is the supposed avatar.” It must be remembered that the very genesis of Podemos was the fading away of the Indignados movement. Podemos’s strategy, however, did not aim to lend a perennial afterlife to this wave of mobilization, but rather to harness its residual energy in order to build an electoral machine. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 272

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Leader-centered movements become vulnerable to ad hominem attacks on the whole — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 271; The Leader’s infallibility structures the movement, not the truth of his words; Electing a perceived strong leader itself lowers threat perception among slumping authoritarians — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 843 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The Leader’s infallibility structures the movement, not the truth of his words #corroborates (0.78)
• The Leader’s power becomes structural necessity rather than personal superiority #complicates (0.75)
• Electing a perceived strong leader itself lowers threat perception among slumping authoritarians #corroborates (0.74) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 843