Sean Thompson
THE AQUINIAN
“Culture, culture, culture matters” when it comes to political leadership, according to a new book co-edited by two St. Thomas professors.
Joseph Masciulli, quoted above, and Mikhail Molchanov launched The Ashgate Research Companion to Political Leadership at the Holy Cross Conference Room Friday, the culmination of five years of work.
Their co-editor, W. Andy Knight of the University of Alberta, couldn’t attend the launch.
Masciulli, interviewed before the launch, said that political leaders had similar responsibilities across all cultures.
“Leaders have to exercise intelligent leadership, be able to organize, share a vision with others and communicate well,” he said, adding that they also had to deal with other arms of government, like the American Congress or the Chinese Communist Party.
But, in the East and West, “the cultures that the leaders have to respond to are different,” he said.
The Chinese, for example, have their own set of values.
“(They) value community over the individual and the wisdom of the aged,” he said, “The West has a more complex individualism.”
The Islamic world has its own set of issues, too.
“Islamic leaders have to deal with complex relationships between religion and the modern world,” he said.
The book also looks at other issues in political leadership, like the European Union, non-governmental organizations, and the role of women.
Other chapters, such as Masciulli’s closing essay on the future of political leadership, look at certain dilemas leaders will face.
“It tries to develop a chapter of how to preserve human rights while dealing with things like terrorism,” he said.
The book has plenty of St. Thomas content – in addition to Masciulli and Molchanov, Richard Myers, Christine Cornell, Patrick Malcolmson, Shaun Narine, and Thomas Bateman contributed essays for the book. Masciulli attributed this to the university’s environment.
“St. Thomas tries to have the best of both worlds: teaching and research,” he said. “We are ambitious enough to believe that you can be a great teacher and a world class researcher.”
But, Masciulli stressed, the book is “a global project involving scholars from around the world.” Essays in the book came from across the world, from the University of Toronto and American University, Washington, D.C., to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. One contributor is even a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
“We wanted something that would address global leadership issues,” he said. “It’s designed to introduce people to scholarship, be inclusive, and show readers these different perspectives.”
Masciulli, the book’s main editor, is already working on a follow-up book, featuring a more comprehensive cultural and religious analysis of leadership, to be published next year.
The Ashgate Research Companion to Political Leadership retails for $150, which ironically led Masciulli not to assign it for his own political leadership class and give out photocopies from it instead. If you don’t want open your wallet, it will be available from UNB Libraries as an e-book in about a month.
“I hope citizens and readers read it,” Masciulli said, “I hope it encourages them to dialogue over the different perspectives of leadership.”
