The Dispersion of Charisma

Abstract

This research deals with the evolution of the bond between a charismatic leader and his mass following. Two stages in the evolutionary process are identified and discussed: the development of structure within the movement, and the dispersion of the mass response across that structure and its higher level personnel. In this, the second report from the overall research project, we focus primarily on the second stage of the process. With a mixture of descriptive reports and systematic survey data, we examine the dispersion of charisma in the case of Peronism. After showing empirically that by 1965 there was, as expected, a clear separation between organizational Peronists and their personalist counterparts, we go on to offer differentiating social and psychological profiles of each wing of the movement. Canonical regression is used to compare the causal influence of social structural and psychological factors in producing the split. It is the former which shows much the greater effects.

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