The Presidents of the European Commission: Transactional or Transforming Leaders?

This article analyzes the leadership of three Commission Presidents: Jacques Delors, Jacques Santer and Romano Prodi. It questions whether these Presidents performed as transactional or transforming leaders – that is, whether they ‘mattered’ as forceful promoters of the European project. Drawing on leadership theory, the article identifies three factors providing opportunities and setting constraints, as decisive for exercising political leadership: the institutional setting, the situational context and the personal qualities of the office holders. It analyzes to what extent these factors, and the interplay among them, shape the leadership of the Commission Presidents, and which of these factors are conditional for the exercise of transforming leadership. It concludes that only Delors was able to act as a transforming leader, whereas Santer and Prodi mainly performed as transactional leaders. These differences are explained by variations in the situational context and the personal qualities of the incumbents and the interplay between all three factors determining political leadership.

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