WEBERIAN ‘CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP’ in STUFF HAPPENS

OpenAlex · English

1. IntroductionDavid Hare's thirteenth play for the National in September 2004, Stuff Happens, dramatically responds in twenty-four scenes to all the political questions about the invasion of Iraq. It illustrates the events from the diplomatic manoeuvres of US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, after 9/11 terrorist attacks, up to the declaration of war against by the George W. Bush administration in March, 2003. Stuff Happens particularly investigates incorrect politics of the U.S.A. and Britain. Hare validates that Iraq was the biggest mistake in foreign policy since Suez (Kampfner 2006:13) in British history. He also attempts to focus on the political mistakes of the US war cabinet about the counterattack strategies against international terrorism. After four-month work, Stuff Happens becomes post-modern history play, with its popular theme in the hands of the playwright during the war.However, impossible to catch on any right answers to the war without examining the personalities and aims of the American and the British political of the play. Stuff Happens makes visible the irresponsible, self-serving, and irrational qualities of current political leaders (Wu 1995:178-182) chiefly in the US war cabinet - Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Theatre-goers certainly foresee the end of the play. However, know the end of Lear too, and that's the part of fascination as we watch the onset of the by no means inevitable (Bassett 2004). The play causes some arguments and provocations to ascertain international certainties for mankind.David Hare's debates around modem history through his three-hour epic play have been analysed under numerous headings by many academicians and critics so far. It even assumed in several works that the play is short of hero (Riddell 2004), except for Colin Powell, who always appreciated for being against Hare's Bush, because of his political stance. But, this work focuses on President George W. Bush, pretentiously considering him the foremost political leader of the play unlike most of the former works. Giving specific details about Weberian 'charismatic leadership', academically constructs link between Max Weber's 'charismatic leadership' and Hare's dramatic vision. Thus, draws the lines of the leadership that Hare has built through George W. Bush in this semiverbatim play. It tries to shape the idea tha, unlike the real US ex-president, Hare's George W. Bush dramatically exceptional, even charismatic.2. Weberian charismatic leadershipIn overall usage, 'charisma' simply the property of being attractive and telegenic. The word 'charisma' derives from the Greek charts - 'grace' and charizesthai - 'to show favour', connoting talent or grace granted by the divine. In Merriam-Webster, 'charisma' defined as a spiritual gift or talent regarded as divinely granted to person as token of grace and favor and exemplified in early Christianity by the power of healing, gift of tongues, or prophesying. Originally religious concept, 'charisma' was borrowed into literature in the 1950's. In the 1960's, it found its way into political science. Then in the 1980's, was imported into organizational leadership theories (Nur 1998:19).In fact, the term came into scholarly usage primarily through the works of German sociologist Max Weber, the founder of modem sociology and the first to critically examine bureaucracies pioneered in Germany during the nineteenth century. In Max Weber on Law in Economy and Society (Rheinstein 1954), Weber postulated that charismatic authority was form of authority distinct from those of tradition and law. The process whereby charismatic authority becomes transformed, or changed, to any of the other forms of authority referred to by Weber as the 'routinization of charisma'. …