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Practicing a Virtuous Politics: Bill Bolling and the Atlanta Community Food Bank
Author(s) -
Thomas John Clayton
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.12810
Subject(s) - atlanta , politics , power (physics) , sociology , political economy , political science , law , history , archaeology , physics , metropolitan area , quantum mechanics
Bill Bolling created the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) in 1979 and, as its executive director from then until 2015, transformed a fledgling effort in a church basement into the “equivalent of a $100 million company.” This article tells the story of how Bolling built the ACFB from scratch, arguing that his accomplishments can be traced to his effectiveness as a political leader. The article explains how Bolling practiced a virtuous politics in building informal sources of power and in developing and applying political skills on behalf of the ACFB. In the process, the article challenges the traditional critical scholarly view of political leadership, offering Bolling as a case illustration of an emerging theory of a benevolent and effective form of political leadership .