Bringing Rhetoric to Policy Studies

Abstract

The authors of The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning brought out the importance of argument rather than scientific demonstration in policy development and implementation. Rhetoric, however, did not feature in those analyses. More recently, attention to rhetoric has increased and become an important feature of interpretative policy analysis. This has taken several forms, notably discourse analysis which has identified the symbolic effects of language in constructing power relations and deliberative democracy studies which have sought a manipulation-free procedural ethics. More recently, authors have drawn from classical rhetoric in using the Aristotelian framework of ethos, logos and pathos. This panel seeks papers drawing on any conception of rhetoric, applied to policymaking. In particular, authors are encouraged to consider how rhetoric might constitute an interpretive methodology in its own right, beyond considering rhetoric as simply style or persuasive speech. For example, papers could address the rhetorical dimensions of political institutions, the effect of ‘affect’ in political mobilization around policy problems, and the dialogical relations between speaker and audience. We welcome papers which address any of these questions. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome, whether employing classical rhetoric, deliberative democracy theory, or poststructuralist conceptions of rhetoric.

Title	Details
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The Discursive Influence of Expert Ideas – Defence Intellectuals and Cold War US Nuclear Strategy	View Paper Details
The ''Sophia'' in ''Phronesis''. Justification and Rhetoric in Democratic Policy Making	View Paper Details