What Critical Leadership Studies Can Learn From (Reading) Plato

Much of contemporary research on leadership can be said to be “Platonic” in the sense that, like Plato's account of the philosopher-king, it seeks to identify the ideal form of leadership. In this chapter, we argue that despite serving as the prototype for this approach, Plato's Republic also offers valuable resources for questioning and challenging this paradigm. The Plato that emerges from a non-doctrinal reading of this text not only constructs an idealized concept of leadership but also critically examines the feasibility of sustaining it in theory and practice. In our reading, Plato offers a middle path between a search for solutions through the formulation of an ideal vision of leadership and an outright dismissal of the possibility of “good” leadership in any form. We suggest that when Plato is read as offering experiments in leadership thought, his work not only has clear resonances with the critical tradition in leadership studies but can also serve as a source of inspiration, reminding us to actively search for the limits and possibilities of leadership ideals.