Discourse Theory in European Politics

Transcription

1 Discourse Theory in European Politics

2 Also by David Howarth South African Transition Discourse Also by Jacob Tor(ing Politics, Regulation and the Modern Welfare State (1998) New Theories of Discourse (1999)

3 Discourse Theory in European Politics Identity, Policy and Governance Edited by David Howarth Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Essex, UK and Jacob Torfing Professor of Politics and Institutions, Roskilde University, Denmark

4 EditOfial Matter and ~ection () David Howarth and Jacob Tom", 2005 Chapters 1-12 () Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2005 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy Of transmission of this publication may be m~ withwt written pennission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written pennisslon or In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and PIJtents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licen.ce permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, l ondon WlT 4lP. Any person who does,my unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to crimi~ prosecution and civil daims for damagts. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this wort in accordance with the Copyright. Designs and Patents Act First pubtisl'led 200S by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and represtntiltlves throughout the wortd PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint 01 the Palgrave MiKmillan division 01 St. Martin's Press, LLC and 01 Palgrave MiKmillan ltd. MiKmillan. is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other counlfies. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable lor recycling aoo made from fully managed aoo sustained forest sources. A catalogue record lor this book is available from the British library. Library of Congress Cllaloglng-in-Publication Data Discoorse theory in European poutics: identity, policy aoo govemancel edited by David Howarth and Jacob Torflng. p. cm. Includes bibllographical referencll!s and index. 158N 97S-o N (pbk..) 1. Europe-Politics and govemment Discourse analysis Political aspects. I. Howarth, David R. II. Torfing. Jacob. JNS.D57 zoos '01-dc OS Transferred to digital printing 2005

5 In memory of our mothers

6 'So you want another story?' 'Uhh... perhaps in English. In Japanese a story would have an element of invention in it. We don't want any invention. We want the "straight facts", as you say in English.' 'Isn't telling about something - using words, English or Japanese - already something of an invention? Isn't just looking upon this world already something of an invention?' 'Uhh... ' 'The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?' (Yann Martel, Life of Pi)

7 Contents on Contributors Acknowledgements xiii xvii Discourse Theory: Achievements, Arguments, and Challenges Jacob Torfing Introduction Achievements Three generations of discourse theory The genealogy of post-structuralist discourse theory Post-structuralist discourse theory in a nutshell Common concerns responding The added value of discourse theory Challenges to discourse theory Some initial responses Plan of the book 1. European Integration and Security: Analysing French and German Discourses on State, Nation, and Europe Ole Wcever Discourse analysis as a theory of foreign policy Discourse and structure Method France, Germany, and Europe Where does it lead? 2. Passions of Identification: Discourse, Enjoyment, and European Identity Yannis Stavrakakis Introduction Passions of identification I: discourse and enjoyment S S S vii

8 viii Contents Passions of identification II: constructing European identity Conclusion Polity as Politics: Studying the Shaping and Effects of Discursive Polities Allan Dreyer Hansen and Eva S rensen Introduction 93 Considerations on method 98 The case study: polity and politics in Skanderborg and Hylke 102 Conclusion 113 Note Problematizing the Mobilization of Hospital Directors 117 Steven Griggs Forging discourse coalitions 118 The transition of the SNCH to health policy lobby 121 Forging a modernizing coalition within the SNCH 127 Conclusions Political Administration 139 Niels Akerstr m Andersen Introduction 139 Analytical strategy 141 An analysis of form of the difference 147 An analysis of the semantics of the administrative policy as politics about the difference politics/administration 152 Conclusion: differentiation of a reflexive subsystem The Human Rights Act: Politics, Power, and the Law 170 Anthony M. Clohesy Introduction 170 Introduction of the HRA: competing interpretations 172 'Generations' and 'waves' of rights

9 Contents ix Methodological considerations: the value of a discourse theory approach Conclusion 7. Right-wing Populism and the Radical Centre: Explaining the Electoral Growth of the Vlaams Blok in Belgium Patrick de Vos Introduction The electoral upsurge of the Vlaams Blok Separatist nationalism and authoritarian xenophobic populism Explaining the upsurge of the Vlaams Blok Defending democracy: counter-strategies The neo-revisionism of the radical centre Politics without adversaries... and its threatening outside Conclusion 8. Third Way Politics Today Steven Bastow and James Martin Introduction The Third Way: left, right, or centre? Discourse theory and political ideology The Third Way 'repertoire' in European ideology Embracing antagonism: radical democracy and the Third Way Conclusion 9. New Labour's Politics of the Hard-working Family Oscar Reyes The dislocation of Labour's traditional appeal: a European perspective Post-industrial society The contradictions of New Labour discourse The hard-working family: ignoble beginnings

10 x Contents The hard-working family: identifying a nodal point 241 Community as an empty signifier 244 New Labour's political subject From Welfare to Social Exclusion: Eugenic Social Policies and the Swiss National Order 255 V ronique Mottier Introduction Method: Foucauldian discourse analysis Governmentality, pastoral power, and national identity Tales of heredity and degeneration Eugenics and social policies Concluding remarks Media Discourse and the Public Sphere Lilie Chouliaraki The significance of trivia Media in the media The debate as government The debate as an articulation of universal and particular meanings The debate: 'Fingers off Frederic', Reimer Bo 21 October 1998 The politics of truth in the debate The debate as public sphere Conclusion 12. Coalitions, Practices, and Meaning in Environmental Politics: From Acid Raid to BSE Maarten A. Hajer Discourse-coalitions in politics Argumentative Discourse Analysis Transcription conventions

11 Contents xi Applying Discourse Theory: the Method of Articulation David Howarth Discourse theory and the question of method Application, articulation, and explanation Research strategies Data as text, text as data Analysing text The construction of subjectivity Conclusion Index

12 on Contributors Niels Akerstrem Andersen is a professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. He is currently working on system theory and discourse analysis in relation to public governance and administration. He has published several books on theoretical, methodological, and empirical aspects of discourse analysis. Steven Bastow is a senior lecturer in Politics at Kingston University, London. He has published a number of articles and book chapters on Deat and the contemporary French extreme right. He is currently working on Third Way discourse in inter-war France and on the contemporary French radical right. Lilie Chouliariaki is Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and co-ordinator of the CBS Media Hub. She has published widely on pedagogic discourse, as well as media discourse and national identity. Her books include Discourse in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis (co-authored with Norman Fairclough). Anthony M. Clohesy teaches Politics at the University of Essex. His current research concerns Third Way politics and Irish nationalism from a discourse theory perspective, and he has published a series of papers and chapters on these issues. Steven Griggs is a lecturer in Public Policy at Birmingham University in the UK. He has published articles on developments in French health policy and politics, and is currently studying the mobilization and decision making process surrounding direct action campaigns in the UK. He is the co-author of French Politics: Debates and Controversies (2000). Maarten A. Hajer is Professor of Public Policy and Political Science in the Department of Political Studies of the University of Amsterdam. His previous publications include The Politics of Environmental Discourse (1995); Living with Nature (1999) edited with Frank Fischer; In Search of the New Public Domain (with Arnold Reijndorp, 2001); and Deliberative Policy Analysis (2003, co-edited with Hendrik Wagenaar). Allan Dreyer Hansen is an associate professor in Public Administration, at Roskilde University. His research interests include discourse theory, democratic theory, and local political participation and institutions. He is a co-founder xiii

13 xiv on Contributors of the Danish Centre for Discourse Theory, and he has published several articles and books of discourse theory and social constructivism. David Howarth is a lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Government at the University of Essex, where he is currently Director of the Doctoral Programme in Ideology and Discourse AnalYSis. His publications include Discourse (2000); South Africa in Transition: New Theoretical Perspectives (1998); and Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change (2000). He has also published numerous articles and chapters on theories on discourse, post-marxist political theory and its application to empirical cases, most notably South Mrican politics and new environmental movements. James Martin is a senior lecturer in Politics at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is author of Gramsci's Political Analysis: a Critical Introduction (1998) and co-author of Contemporary Social and Political Theory: an Introduction (1999). He has published on Gramsci in various journals and is currently working on theories of civil society. In addition to interests in Italian politics and political theory, he edits the Newsletter of the PSA specialist group for Post-Structuralism and Radical Politics. VeroniqueMottier is a FNS Research Professor at the University of Lausanne and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Her books include Politics of Sexuality: Identity, Gender, Citizenship (1998), edited with't. Carver; Genre et politique: debats et perspectives (2000), co-edited with T.-H. Ballmer-Cao and L. Sgier; and French Social Theory: From Merleau-Ponty to Bourdieu (forthcoming). Oscar Reyes is currently completing his PhD in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. He has published articles and chapters on different aspects of British politics. Eva Serensen is a professor in Public Administration at Roskilde University, Denmark. She is currently working on governance theory, local democracy, and transformation of political identity. She has published extensively in this area and is director of a major research project on the changing identities of politicians and bureaucrats in the face of new forms of governance. Yannis Stavrakakis is Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. He is author of Lacan and the Political (1999) and co-editor of Discourse Theory and Political Analysis (2000) and Lacan & Science (2002). Jacob Torfing is a professor in Politics and Institutions, at Roskilde University, Denmark. He is currently working on discourse theory, welfare reform and the democratic implications of new forms of governance. His books

14 on Contributors xv include New Theories o(discourse (1999) and Politics, Regulation, and the Modem Wel(are State (1995). He is co-founder of the Danish Centre for Discourse Theory and director of the Centre for Democratic Network Governance. He has published several articles and books on discourse theory and its use in political science. Patrick de Vos has completed his doctorate at the Belgian Ghent University where he was a teaching and research assistant in political science. He has previously published articles on right-wing extremism, social democracy, post-feminism, discourse analysis, and labour relations. His current research interests include globalization and the welfare state, social democratic neo-revisionism, populism, and discourse theoretical approaches to political analysis. Ole Wrever is Professor in International Politics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a co-founder of the Copenhagen School in Security Politics and he is currently working on international politics, security theory, and EU integration. He is a board member of several international journals and he has written extensively on post-structuralism and international politics. His books include Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe (1993) and Security: a New Framework (or Analysis (1998).