Training politicians towards a more inclusive leadership : a proposal

Abstract

Equality and representation are founding principles for contemporary democracies. Yet, notwithstanding the increasing adoption, in recent years, of different measures targeted at reducing the representation gap, exclusionary dynamics in politics persist, with crucial consequences for the quality of political decision-making. This brief fulfils two main objectives: first, building from original research, it makes a case for the advantages of fostering an inclusive model of leadership in politics, and it proposes a way to achieve this result by targeting the behaviour and organisational culture of political “gate-keepers” – political parties and experienced male politicians; second, it presents the training curriculum of the Inclusive Leadership Initiative (ILI), whose aim is to provide useful and innovative contents and skills to male politicians to overcome the exclusive dynamics of traditional conceptions of authoritativeness, power and leadership across the political sphere. The different modules of the ILI curriculum presented here are based on the results of original research and a pilot study both held in 2021.