Abstract

The problem of leadership attracted attention for centuries. Leadership manifested in all spheres of public life – social, economic, spiritual, and particularly evident manifested in the political sphere. Political leadership – is universal socio-political phenomenon that consists of many components. The system of modern social, political and other relations and also the world order type and civilization development ilargely based on using the leadership phenomenon. Therefore search of leadership is extremely topical and is of scientifi importance. In modern science, political leadership is characterized ambiguous because of a great diversity of approaches to its explanation. The main aim of this article is study of common approaches to the defiition and typology of political leadership. The political leadership was сomprehended, was studied its specifis at the present stage of development. The defiition of leadership was determined as a socio–political phenomenon. The basic approaches and theories of leadership of known researchers and scientists: political scientists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists were analyzed. Different conceptual systems that consider leadership in the political sphere were analyzed. They explained in various way its origin, main functions, impact on society. The main criteria for choosing a particular type of leadership such as tradition, ideology, charisma and professionalism were studied. Particular attention was paid to the number of typical characteristics separation of the ideal political leader image. The conclusions, which were made in the work, suggestions and recommendations can be used for further studying the problem and for updateing training courses of Public Administration, Imageology at higher educational institutions specializing in the Political Science.