Leadership of democratic communities: Municipal politicians’ motivation to take responsibility

Given that political party membership continues to decrease, it is relevant to investigate what motivates people to engage in political leadership of democratic communities. There is a lack of research-based knowledge on how sense of community responsibility (SOC-R) relates to political leadership behavior among politicians. Using survey data from all Danish municipal politicians in 2019 and 2023, we examine the longitudinal associations between SOC-R and two elements of democratic leadership: consensus building and visionary leadership. We employ both fixed and random effects panel regressions. The main finding is that SOC-R is positively associated with visionary leadership behavior, while findings are less certain for consensus building. This underscores the importance of continuing research into the conditions for leading democratic communities to prevent the erosion of political engagement.