The purpose itself

Policy is the domain of purpose, of the projects we undertake in common purpose to fulfill our greatness, to do the things we cannot do in isolation, to fulfill our melakha. 

No doubt it is necessary to establish a consensus and to inspire people to follow the leadership in order to achieve that common purpose but the consensus and the leadership are merely instruments by which the common purpose is undertaken. It is the purpose itself, the actual engagement in public works of great scale, that defines the greatness of a people. That is the true art of leadership. That is where the contagion of the mob can be harnessed for good, for the sake of the legitimate, stable order of society, and not merely to enhance the grip on power by a small, select few who revel for their own amusement and aggrandizement in the manipulation of the common will, the common purpose of a people.