Splendid Isolation: Personalisation and Autonomy

Abstract

A contemporary prime minister can draw on personal power resources that link the incumbent directly to the electorate and, in turn, distance the incumbent from institutional aspects (such as party, leadership rivals and the executive). As such, a prime minister can be strengthened by personal association with electoral success and the sound handling of a crisis. Yet, equally, a personalised prime minister can suffer, as the process makes a leader vulnerable to changes in public opinion. Heffernan (2005 a) emphasised that personal power resources are conditional depending on factors that are contextual and contingent.