The Leadership Capital Index utilizes the conceptual terminology of Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. This chapter presents the groundwork for the LCI as it clarifies Bourdieu’s key concepts and traces the evolution from political capital to leadership capital. With an overview of Bourdieu’s three core concepts of economic, cultural, and social capital, plus the more elusive symbolic capital, the chapter assists with an appreciation of the analytical potential of the concept of political capital. The notion of leadership capital integrates many (but not all) aspects of Bourdieu’s field-specific notion of political capital and the LCI succeeds in translating his complex conceptualization into a manageable set of ten indicators. The chapter explains how together Bourdieu’s political sociology and the approach suggested through the LCI create numerous synergies and are promising and useful endeavors in the analysis of political leadership.
Editorial: International Political Sociology: Critical and Collective Adventures
