The question of leadership in social affairs has timelessly engaged political and administrative thinking and action. Small wonder then that the responses given to this problem do vary considerably in several domains of collective experience. The conduct of war and military operations, the performance of contemporary business organizations, the functioning of political institutions and the challenges of governance in the public sphere, even religious, ideological or cultural movements and reforms are all connected with or affected by leadership. The latter has been occasionally explained as a matter of art or fortune, as an innate trait of the ‘charismatic’ personality or as an outcome of coincidence. It has been related with morality and vision, as well as with practical efficiency or even brutal exercise of force. Little attention has been paid, however, to the distinction of the types of leadership discussed in Plato’s Politicus. The present paper purports to clarify the conceptual significance of the analytical types of leader as shepherd, as therapist and as weaver on the basis of the above platonic dialogue.
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