What Is a Leader?

by Rev. James V. Schall, SJ

The verb "to lead" means to be out in front. But it also has the implication of knowing where the group that one leads is to go. The image of the lead mountain climber mistakenly guiding the troupe over a cliff comes to mind. The leader is supposed to know the way and to know when he doesn't. We look for political leaders who know the way -- to what? They seek to limit evils and to promote the reasonable flourishing of citizens to be sufficiently prosperous and humanly good.

What if, as is often the case, we do not know the way? In this case, we probably need a leader even more. To do nothing is stagnation. Any endeavor that has its result in the future is uncertain, however much we seek to anticipate eventualities. All political action is about the future, the direction of which is decided in the now. Thus, we look for a leader who is sensible and prudent in judging the way. We do not want as leader someone who thinks there is no way, or one whose proposals direct us to a goal that is impossible or unattainable by the kind of beings we are in the circumstances in which we actually live.

We often hear talk about "voting issues," not persons. I have never thought this was a particularly good idea. Generally, we have no notion of what political leaders will face once they are in office. They do not know either. We seek leaders with character, the capacity to understand, and the will to decide among immediate and long-range alternatives. The classics called it political prudence....