Recent political developments suggest that political followership has played increasingly vital roles in modern democratic politics. However, scholarship seemingly lacks proper conceptual and methodological tools for analysing why and how citizens follow their leaders, and what the role of this relationship is in personalised politics and political leadership. Addressing the research gap, this article turns to generic leadership studies for help and introduces its follower-centric models into the field of political science. This venture opens with a review and comparison of some of the different perspectives about political followers in the scholarship on political leadership and personalisation, taking account of their limitations. It then moves on to assess follower-centric models and their empirical results, focusing on observers’ perceptions about the characteristics and behaviours of leaders in the attribution of leadership. Based on these models, the article offers a balanced perspective about leader–follower relations. Recommendations for future research directions are presented in the concluding sections.

最近的政治发展表明，政治追随者在现代民主政治中扮演着越来越重要的角色。然而，学术似乎缺乏适当的概念和方法工具来分析公民为什么以及如何追随他们的领导，以及这种关系在个性化政治和政治领导中的作用。为了解决研究空白，本文转向通用领导力研究寻求帮助，并将其以追随者为中心的模型引入政治学领域。本次冒险首先回顾和比较了政治领导力和个性化奖学金中关于政治追随者的一些不同观点，同时考虑到了他们的局限性。然后继续评估以追随者为中心的模型及其实证结果，关注观察者在领导力归因中对领导者特征和行为的看法。基于这些模型，本文提供了关于领导者与追随者关系的平衡观点。在结论部分提出了对未来研究方向的建议。