scholarly journals “Doing God” in Number 10: British Prime Ministers, Religion, and Political Rhetoric

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Crines ◽  
Kevin Theakston
Keyword(s):  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
David Cameron ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
Public Persona

AbstractThis article analyses British prime ministers' use of religious language and their own religious beliefs in their political rhetoric. This is used to justify policy, support their ideological positions, present a public persona, and cultivate their personal ethical appeal and credibility as values-driven political leaders. The focus is on the use and the nature of the religious arguments of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. As political leaders, British prime ministers are aware of the need to modify and tailor their language in response to changing audiences and contexts. “Doing God” is a difficult and risky rhetorical strategy for British prime ministers but it increasingly has the potential to yield political benefits.

Limits to Dominance?

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
Capital Building ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Very High ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Policy Vision

This chapter compares the leadership capital of two long-serving UK prime ministers: Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, treble election winners who held office for a decade. Mapping their capital over time reveals two very different patterns. Thatcher began with low levels of capital, building to a mid-term high and final fragile dominance, though her capital fell between elections. Blair possessed very high levels from the outset that gradually declined in a more conventional pattern. Both benefited from electoral dominance and a divided opposition, Thatcher’s strength lay in her policy vision while Blair’s stemmed from his popularity and communication skills. The LCI reveals that both prime ministers were successful without being popular, sustained in office by the electoral system. Towards the end of their tenures, both leaders’ continued dominance masked fragility, ousted when unrest in their parties and policy unpopularity eroded their capital.

Comparison of American and British political texts (based on the material of the inaugural speeches)

2021 ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
A. G. Antonchik ◽  
U. A. Fedotova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Key Words ◽  
David Cameron ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Functional Purpose ◽  
Theresa May

The article presents a comparative analysis of American and British political texts, aimed to reveal the content of speech tactics and strategies, and to comment on their functional purpose. Special attention is paid to the issues of using the means of speech expressiveness, among which key words and metaphors are highlighted. This study is based on the texts of the inaugural speeches of American presidents (George W. Bush, Barak H. Obama, Donald J. Trump, Joe R. Biden) and British prime ministers (Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson), published on the official websites of the US and UK administrations.

scholarly journals Losing the Discursive Battle but Winning the Ideological War: Who Holds Thatcherite Values Now?

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172098670
Author(s):  
Stephen Farrall ◽  
Emily Gray ◽  
Phil Mike Jones ◽  
Colin Hay
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
New Right ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
The Uk

In what ways, if at all, do past ideologies shape the values of subsequent generations of citizens? Are public attitudes in one period shaped by the discourses and constructions of an earlier generation of political leaders? Using Thatcherism – one variant of the political New Right of the 1980s – as the object of our enquiries, this article explores the extent to which an attitudinal legacy is detectable among the citizens of the UK some 40 years after Margaret Thatcher first became Prime Minister. Our article, drawing on survey data collected in early 2019 (n = 5781), finds that younger generations express and seemingly embrace key tenets of her and her governments’ philosophies. Yet at the same time, they are keen to describe her government’s policies as having ‘gone too far’. Our contribution throws further light on the complex and often covert character of attitudinal legacies. One reading of the data suggests that younger generations do not attribute the broadly Thatcherite values that they hold to Thatcher or Thatcherism since they were socialised politically after such values had become normalised.

Why Talk Tough? Explaining Japanese Prime Ministers’ Proactiveness in National Defense Rhetoric

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Liu
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
National Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
National Defense ◽  
National Security Policy ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
External Threat

Abstract What explains variations in the proactiveness of Japanese Prime Ministers (PMs) toward national defense? Although the Japanese Constitution renounces the use of force, leaders sometimes speak assertively over national security. Drawing on competing international relations and Japanese foreign policy theories, this study seeks to quantitatively model and analyze predictors of political rhetoric in PMs’ speeches and statements from 2009 to 2019. Each statement is coded into four sets of binary dependent variables through content analysis and tested against five competing hypotheses. The main finding reveals that leaders become more likely to advocate for specifically assertive national security policy when Chinese vessel intrusion increases, but not when North Korea missile tests and aircraft scrambles increase. Instead of a diversionary use of words, an emboldening effect is evident in rhetoric that evokes responsibility in international defense, moderated by ruling government strength. The findings advance academic understandings of Japanese national security policy messaging and highlight the effect of external threat perception on political rhetoric.

British Foreign Secretaries and Japan, 1850-1990

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Japanese Market ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
Japanese Investment ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
History Of

This book reviews the role of British Foreign Secretaries in the formulation of British policy towards Japan from the re-opening of Japan in the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. It also takes a critical look at the history of British relations with Japan over these years. Beginning with Lord John Russell (Foreign Secretary 1859-1865) and concluding with Geoffrey Howe (Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, 1983-1989), the volume also examines the critical roles of two British Prime Ministers in the latter part of the twentieth century, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher, who ensured that Britain recognized both the reality and the opportunities for Britain resulting from the Japanese economic and industrial phenomenon. Heath’s main emphasis was on opening the Japanese market to British exports. Thatcher’s was on Japanese investment. This volume is a valuable addition to the Japan Society’s series devoted to aspects of Anglo-Japanese relations which includes ten volumes of Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits as well as British Envoys in Japan.

Class Resilience

2018 ◽  
pp. 95-122
Author(s):  
Peter Marks
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
Classless Society

Alwyn Turner’s compendious study, A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s (2013), ends after 574 richly observed pages seemingly contradicting its title. Turner writes of John Major and Tony Blair, that ‘both had sought to create a classless society, both had failed, with wealth inequality increasing and social mobility decreasing, and both found themselves ill at ease with the kind of classless culture that emerged instead’ (574). Turner adds that Major and Blair (and before them, Margaret Thatcher) had aimed to refashion Britain as a meritocracy, where ability was more pertinent and consequential than family background and traditional networks of social power.

Performing Political Ideologies

2021 ◽  
pp. 470-484
Author(s):  
Alan Finlayson
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Rhetorical Authority

This chapter shows the importance of performance studies to the theory and analysis of political ideas and ideologies. Reviewing ways in which these have been studied in political science it argues that there is a need to understand more about how ideologies are manifested in and through their public performance. In particular, drawing on Rhetorical Political Analysis (RPA), it argues that rhetorical performances of ethos—of character in various dimensions—are fundamental to the manifestation of ideologies. Using examples from British and American political rhetoric the chapter demonstrates how political leaders perform fidelity to a political tradition, draw rhetorical authority from it, and promote, perform, and embody a particular sort of ideological ethos. The chapter further discusses how performances of ethos may draw on very general archetypes, the playing of parts in larger ideological social dramas, and the ways in which polities governs and sets limits to the range of performances possible.

Gambling with the electorate

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Nicholas Allen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
The European Union ◽  
David Cameron ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Theresa May

This chapter charts the story of the Conservatives in government between 2015 and 2017. It examines why David Cameron called a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, why Theresa May succeeded him as prime minister, and why May decided to call a snap election in the spring of 2017. It locates these decisions against deep and bitter divisions within the Conservative party over the issue of EU membership, and further examines the broader record of the Conservatives in government. Above all, it seeks to explain how both prime ministers both came to gamble their fortunes on the electorate – and lose.

The Euro: Crisis and Collapse?

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Meadway
Keyword(s):  
Euro Crisis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
European Model ◽  
Nation States ◽  
New Synthesis ◽  
The World ◽  
Rates Of Growth ◽  
Supranational Institutions

By the end of the last decade, the European project appeared secure. Monetary union had been successfully negotiated and Eurozone members who had previously lagged, like Greece and Ireland, had sustained high rates of growth since their entry to the single currency in 1999. It did not seem ridiculous for a former foreign policy advisor to Tony Blair, Mark Leonard, to tell us in breathless style Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century (2005) . Citing Europe's new synthesis of social democracy's concern for welfare with the liberalism's support for freedom, Leonard happily forecast the spread of the European model to the rest of the world. That vision, needless to say, now lies in ruins. Europe, both as a constellation of supranational institutions making up the European Union, and as a collection of different nation states, is in a deep, and deepening, crisis. For the last eighteen months, its political leaders have met with increasing frequency to offer a succession of failed solutions, with the gap between the summit's final statement of intent and its collapse seemingly shrinking on every occasion. The malaise looks incurable.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document