The MADD queen: Charisma and the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Abstract

By examining the development of Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD) under the leadership of its founder. Candy Lightner, we see the unfolding of a problem identified by Max Weber: charismatic leadership and rational forms of organization have incompatible elements. An undaunted, emotionally expressive leader driven by a moral mission was an important factor in, first, establishing the legitimacy and salience of the drunk-driving issue in the eyes of the American public, and second, in the formation of a well-funded national organization: MADD. Once organized, the institutional pressures on a non-profit organization to conform to rational administrative practices for its continued legitimacy drew people into MADD who were specialists and functionaries, not followers. The resulting conflict led to the eventual replacement of MADD's founding president.