Leadership in The Walking Dead: Comparing the Governor, Negan and Rick

Rick Grimes: The idealistic but inconsistent leader

Unlike the Governor or Negan, Rick is neither a psychopath nor a megalomaniac. He is not really creating a personality cult around his person. Nor does he try to give himself a title, as he slyly remarks when he meets the Governor: “I don’t pretend to be a Governor”. In spite of these differences, however, Rick is obviously a natural leader who enjoys being in charge. For all his talk about never asking for it, he has a tendency to get back into the leader’s position even when he is not supposed to be the leader anymore.

Rick is no manipulator, but he does sometimes keep certain truths hidden from his own people: his decision not to tell anyone about the secret Jenner told him (“We are all infected”) creates tensions with the rest of the group at the end of season 2.

It is very difficult to characterize Rick’s style, as he simply keeps changing according to the circumstances and the state of his own mental health. He is aware that he is an imperfect leader, and seems to try different solutions every time. He starts out as an idealistic, democratic leader whose methods contrast with the most authoritarian and cynical methods favored by Shane. He then turns into an authoritarian mode of ruling, when he famously declares: “This is not a democracy anymore.”

However, unlike Negan or the Governor, Rick never forces anyone to stay with him. He is also far more aware of his shortcomings, so much so that he even abdicates as a leader at the end of season 3, telling his people: “I am not your Governor”. Yet, even when a council is theoretically running the prison, Rick does take momentous decisions by himself, in particular the decision to banish Carol. Even after she comes back, he tells her that the group is joining her, but ends up acting as the leader of the group anyway.

In short, Rick always seems to be in charge even when he theoretically isn’t: in Alexandria, Maggie is supposed to be Deanna’s successor, but Rick is still the unofficial leader. After the trauma inflicted by Negan, he told Michonne he did not want to be the one to unify the communities… at least not without her. But we’ve heard that kind of talk from Rick before, so we’ll have to wait and see if he truly meant what he said.