Samenvatting

In a changing social and political environment, mayors assume quite a few different roles in local government. This is because they face different expectations, held by social and political actors at different times. Based on the distinction between strong and weak mayoral leadership, this article develops a typology of mayoral leadership roles. The authors argue that inherent tensions exist between some of these roles, making it impossible for mayors to fulfill all roles at once. Therefore, political leadership is best conceived as something that is contextually dependent. Mayors continually have to find a temporal balance between different roles, depending on the institutional setting and social and political context in which they operate at that time. Therefore, a caleidoscopic perspective on political leadership may provide valuable insights for mayors on how to develop their own leadership style.