CHARM

A professor of sociology and communications examines how contemporary world leaders have used—and exploited—personal charm for political ends.

In today’s political landscape, individual politicians, rather than institutions and organizations, garner the lion’s share of public attention and trust. Sonnevend, author of Stories Without Borders, argues that this development has transformed politics into “a site of performance.” As a result, personal charm—“personal magnetism that rests on proximity to political ‘tribes’”—has become an increasingly important political tool. Like the social media platforms modern politicians use to communicate with their audiences, charm can build enduring public images for leaders and their countries. The author suggests that former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s informal mother-and-baby Facebook videos, for example, were carefully crafted to promote a relatable image of an ordinary mother who also happened to be the leader of a caring, democratic nation. Sonnevend shows how similar authenticity-creating tactics have also helped populist-autocratic leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Social media images celebrating Hungarian traditions and his own fatherly protectiveness have helped him maintain extraordinarily high levels of popularity among the masses, despite controversial stances on immigration, gender rights, and other issues. At the same time, the gentle seductions of charm can also be strategically “weaponized” by those perceived as threatening for short-term political goals. Sonnevend points to the example of Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Zarif, who, to defuse long-standing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, performed “visible signs of geniality or warmth in public diplomatic settings” throughout the 2015 American-Iranian nuclear deal negotiations. Pertinent and well researched, this book will be of particular interest to those with an interest in global politics, as well as readers seeking to understand what Sonnevend calls the new “era of direct and reciprocal verbal and visual communications between leaders and their audiences.”

Timely, illuminating reading.