Great expectations: the experienced credibility of cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders Sabine van Zuydam
[email protected] Concept, please do not cite Paper prepared for the NIG PUPOL international conference 2016, session 4: Session 4: The Political Life and Death of Leaders 1 In the relationship between politics and citizens, political leaders are essential. While parties and issues have not become superfluous, leaders are required to win support of citizens for their views and plans, both in elections and while in office. To be successful in this respect, credibility is a crucial asset. Research has shown that credible leaders are thought to be competent, trustworthy, and caring. What requires more attention is the meaning of competent, caring, and trustworthy leaders in the eyes of citizens. In this paper the question is needed to be credible according to citizens in different leadership positions, e.g. cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders. To answer this question, it was studied what is expected of leaders in terms of competence, trustworthiness, and caring by conducting an extensive qualitative analysis of Tweets and newspaper articles between August 2013 and June 2014. In this analysis, four Dutch leadership cases with a contrasting credibility rating were compared: two cabinet ministers (Frans Timmermans and Mark Rutte) and two parliamentary party leaders (Emile Roemer and Diederik Samsom). This analysis demonstrates that competence relates to knowledgeability, decisiveness and bravery, performance, and political strategy. Trustworthiness includes keeping promises, consistency in views and actions, honesty and sincerity, and dependability. Caring means having an eye for citizens’ needs and concern, morality, constructive attitude, and no self-enrichment.