Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

Students are required to have studied EITHER POL1015 The Westminster System: the UK in comparative perspective

This is to ensure that students have prior knowledge and understanding of the UK political system.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

Questions of leadership are ubiquitous in British politics. Leaders are subject to ongoing commentary in print, broadcast and social media. Opinion polls routinely collect popular assessments of leaders, while valence politics renders attitudes towards political leaders increasingly electorally salient. The diaries, autobiographies, and biographies of leaders reach wide audiences. However, much of the discussion and assessment of leadership in Britain is insular and atheoretical. This module therefore aims to examine political leadership in Britain by reference to a range of theoretical debates in political science and kindred disciplines.

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics on the syllabus are likely to include:

- What is Political Leadership?
- Biography, Psychology, Personality and British Political Leadership
- British Political Leaders and Their Followers
- Performance and British Political Leadership
- British Political Leaders and the Electorate
- The Body Politic? Gender and British Political Leadership
- Blunders, Scandals, Crises and British Political Leadership
- Foreign Policy Leadership
- Ethics and British Political Leadership
- Into the Political Sunset: Leaving Office, Political Legacies, and the Evaluation of British Political Leadership

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On completion of the module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the careers, governing techniques, and the records of political leaders in Britain;
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how the institutional, party political, electoral, and international contexts influences the exercise of political leadership in Britain;
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key concepts, theories, and debates on political leadership and be able to apply this knowledge and understanding to political leaders in Britain.

Intended Skill Outcomes

The module will develop students’ skills to:
Critically evaluate empirical data, concepts, arguments and theories
Develop and articulate this critical understanding through independent reading, seminar presentations, group discussion, and written communication

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The pre-recorded video content introduces students to the careers of the 16 post-war UK prime ministers to be studied in the module.

The in-person lectures introduce students to the key topics of the module.

The optional present in person seminars are designed to actively engage students in critical discussion of the core theoretical, conceptual, and empirical concerns of the module.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The first component (2000 word essay) will analyse one individual leader in depth using the theories and concepts introduced and examined in the module. The unseen digital examination will require students to critically evaluate atheoretical approach to the study of political leadership by applying it to several British political leaders studied in the module.

General Notes

N/A