Political language: Words that succeed and policies that fail

by Murray Edelman

Political Language: Words That Succeed and Policies That Fail deals with chronic inequalities of a smaller portion of the population getting more. The book discusses the persistence of poverty and greater inequalities in a democratic society such as the United States. The text reviews the chronic problems and the various beliefs found in American society, and also notes the general acceptance of the large differences in the quality of life of the people, which includes political power and autonomy. The book then defines perception of the political spectator and explains the linguistic generation of assumptions (taking for granted), linguistic reconstruction of facts (cover-ups), and the linguistic segmentation of politics (distinct from ordinary world). The text then emphasizes the language of inquiry, of authority, of participation, and of resistance as leading to free inquiry and experimentation or political loyalty. The selection can prove beneficial for political students, economists, educators, sociologists, and members of ministerial affairs related to population and economics.

Genres: Politics, Language

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Edelman received a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1941. He then earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Chicago in 1942 and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1948. He served on the faculty of the University of Illinois from 1948 to 1966. In 1966 Edelman joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and he retired from there in 1990.

Edelman’s innovative and classic book The Symbolic Uses of Politics (1964) is the seminal work on symbolic politics, and it continues to exert a widespread influence on scholarly research. In it, Edelman explored the use of myths, rites, and other symbolic forms of communication in the formation of public opinion and policy. He drew a distinction between the conventional view of politics, which focuses on how people acquire what they want through government, and the reality of politics, in which political symbolism is used to influence a country’s citizens by placating them or compelling them to act. The book was centred on the notion that democracy is largely symbolic and expressive in function and has fostered vibrant scholarly debate. According to Edelman, political reality is concealed from the public through the generation of largely empty symbols by the political elite.

Edelman wrote 10 other books exploring the issues of which The Symbolic Uses of Politics laid the foundation. Those books include Politics as Symbolic Action: Mass Arousal and Quiescence (1971), which explored the generation of political perception and public opinion in democracies and mass political action, and Constructing the Political Spectacle (1988), in which he argued that even those who are the most well-versed in politics would exhibit characteristics of the dominant ideology—even if they developed and espoused ideologies that ran counter to it