When the Leader Falls: Charismatic Leadership as Interpreted by the Far Right
Video Social & Behavioral Sciences 2025 Graduate ExhibitionPresentation by Anthony Albanese
Exhibition Number 510
Abstract
According to Max Weber’s theorizing on the charismatic leader, charisma’s formation requires the follower’s recognition of the leader’s extraordinary capabilities and unconditional success in bringing well-being to the followers. While Weber contends that charisma dissipates when the leader fails in an important endeavor, this article complicates Weber’s concept by examining a case in which charisma was preserved despite the leader’s exhibition of definitionally anti-charismatic characteristics. Drawing on 44 interviews with far-right individuals including several notable figures, I examine interpretations of Donald Trump’s leadership qualities in light of his lack of electoral success in the 2020 general election. I find that far-right individuals mitigate the discomfort of dissonance through rationalization processes that rely on symbolic resources (e.g., story-creation, conspiracies, etc.) to protect and maintain Trump’s charismatic appeal. I conclude by discussing how integrating the social aspects of conspiratorial ideation into theorizing on charismatic appeal can improve current understandings of far-right dispositions and the complexities of followers’ interpretations of political leadership
Importance
This article addresses a contextual gap, as literature on the far-right is mostly focused on western European countries. The two-party system in the U.S. poses challenges for measurement and classification of far-right populism, as Republican voters are an ideologically varied category consisting of both moderates and extremists. This article responds to this difficulty by using the Southern Poverty Law Center’s database of extremist groups to contact far-right individuals. In these in-depth semi-structured interviews, I am particularly cognizant of the ways in which respondents construct and organize meaning into a story that makes sense of political developments and leadership. to charisma’s protection, and in doing so, helps move toward a more lucid comprehension of the near-unconditional devotion to Donald Trump.