the United Kingdom had become, if anything, more centralized during the
Thatcher years, as central government curbed the spending and tax collecting
powers of local government in order to impose its overall desired social and
economic policy, the new decentralization since 1997, with a highly auton-
omous Scottish Parliament, is only possible because it is a disguised form of
federalism. In contrast Wales, which was only granted a weak form of local
autonomy, has seen very little relaxation of central control. Some larger
countries, for example France, have also historically been highly centralized;
however, early in the presidency of Franc ̧oisMitterrand, administrative and
financial responsibilities were transferred from government-appointed prefects
to locally-elected departmental assemblies. Similar attempts to increase the
political power of regions have been made elsewhere, especially in Italy. Since
the rise of the quasi-separatist Northern League, the Italian regions have
become steadily more autonomous.
Charisma
Charisma was originally a theological notion, with the literal meaning of the
‘gift of grace’, an attribute in the Catholic theology of saints.Weberused it to
describe one of his three principal types of politicalauthority. To Weber
charisma was a personal quality of attraction and psychological power capable
of inspiring deep political loyalty in large numbers of people. Thus charismatic
leaders win sway over their followers for entirely personal reasons rather than
because of any specific policies they espouse, or because they are in some way a
‘legitimate’ ruler, perhaps by virtue of traditional inheritance. It has become
somewhat over-worked, with almost any political leader who can project a
pleasing personality being credited with this actually very rare capacity to
demand unswerving support simply because of their own character. Possible
candidates of some plausibility are Gandhi, Nasser andHitler, who do seem to
have been able to command support in this way. The inclusion of the latter
indicates how much we are talking of personal magnetism rather than moral
force. Politically, the great problem with authority is what Weber indicated as
the ‘routinization of charisma’; that is, one dynamic leader may build a state or
party around their own qualities, but after them, who should command, and
why should the inheritor be obeyed? It seems that charismatic institutions can
only be long-lived if there are also pragmatic or traditional reasons for support,
or if these can be developed.
Chicago School
The Chicago School refers to a set of ideas and people focusing on several
departments at the University of Chicago from the 1950s onwards. Although
Charisma