Community Leadership in Chilean Public Policies: Representations and Meanings from Citizenship

Authors

  • Valentina Andrea Vallejo-Correa Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Karen Andrea Jaramillo-Solar Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • María Isabel Reyes-Espejo Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Florencia Almazán-Montenegro Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Catalina Flores-Ortiz Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
  • Camila Sofía Rodríguez-Tobar Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

Abstract

Community psychology approaches the study of leadership from a critical perspective, revealing its potential of transforming social reality within the framework of the processes of associativity and social exchange. In order to know the public perception about leadership and public policies, during 2017, we developed and applied a questionnaire to a sample of 247 people between 20 and 75 years of age, residents of the Metropolitan and Valparaíso regions. Its aim was to know the citizens’ perception based on the representations, meanings and assessment of the leadership in current public policies. The analysis of the quantitative data included the use of descriptive statistics and, for the qualitative data, we worked with the guidelines of the theory of the central nucleus of social representations. The results show little recognition of the public policy of leadership. Meanings and assessments associated with group and horizontal leadership were observed, while their representations are fundamentally of an individual type. We discuss the possibility of constructing new views of the leadership from public policy, enhancing it as a collective and transformative process.

Keywords:

community psychology, community leadership, public policies, citizen perception, social representations