Short and Tall Tales: Why Height No Longer Reigns in the Corridors of Power

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte had himself crowned Emperor of the French in a ceremony drenched in symbolism and grandeur. The moment was not just about pomp, but about projection - an assertion of power by a man famously (if wrongly) described as short.

For centuries, the idea of physical stature has been tangled up with authority, dominance, and leadership. Height, it has been assumed, helps command the room, the crowd, the world.

But look around today and you’ll see a puzzling shift. Many of the most powerful political leaders of the twenty-first century are not especially tall—and some are conspicuously short. Vladimir Putin stands at around 5’7” (170cm), Volodymyr Zelenskyy is roughly the same. Emmanuel Macron is 5’8” on a good day. Boris Johnson was 5’9”, while Nicolas Sarkozy 5’5”. Or there is Georgia Meloni - who clocks in at 5’3”, as does Ursula von der Leyen.

It is a long list, that keeps on going: Narendra Modi, Lula da Silva, Javier Milei - you name it. Most global leaders are below average height in their own nation. Even Joe Biden, at just under 6’, was unremarkable in stature.

They are standing on steps for a reason…

This isn’t an optical illusion of populism or camera angles. It may be a reflection of something deeper: that the traditional association between height and leadership is fraying - or, more provocatively, that power may now require a different kind of projection altogether.