A Study of the Themes and Components of Charismatic Leadership in the Speeches of Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhād in his Provincial Trips

The purpose of the present study is to review the themes and components of charismatic leadership in the speeches of Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhād in his provincial trips. The results of the research conducted by qualitative content analysis of the provincial speeches of Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhād indicate that the themes and components related to charismatic authority as the dominant facet have the highest frequency in the speeches made in his provincial trips. In other words, from among 1622 units of analysis, 490 (30.2%) cases have dealt with subjects other than charismatic authority and the rest including 1132 units (69.8%) contain elements of charismatic authority. This figure clearly indicates the dominance of the above themes in the speeches under study and conveys that Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhād recognizes his power not just as a conditional and temporary advocacy or a given subject resulting from people’s votes in the framework of the Islamic Republic, but rather as the manifestation of the will of mass of people to perform great missions originating from a bonding deeper than what is known as political representativeness given by people to the selected officials in the states based on election. It is an infinite and unlimited power, compatible and aligned with goals and missions such as justice and development that give legitimacy to that.