The Russian political term leaderism (Russian: вождизм, vozhdism) means "a policy directed at the affirmation/confirmation of one person in the role of an indisputable or infallible leader".[1] Manifestations of vozhdism include clientelism, nepotism, tribalism, and messianism.[2]
Forms of leaderism include Italian fascism, Führerprinzip, Stalinism, Maoism, and Juche. According to Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948), Leninism represented a new type of leaderism, featuring a leader of masses having dictatorship powers, while Joseph Stalin as vozhd exemplifies an ultimate type of such a supreme leader.[3]
In Marxist–Leninist phraseology, leaderism is a pejorative, in opposition to the officially proclaimed "principle of collective leadership".[4][5][6] As representative types of leaderist societies, some modern Russian authors argue include the regimes of Mikheil Saakashvili,[7] Islamic leaders,[8] and Vladimir Putin.[9]