The Discourse of Politics in Action : Politics As Usual

An interdisciplinary study providing first-hand evidence of the everyday lives of politicians; what politicians actually do on 'the backstage' in political organizations. The book offers answers to the widely discussed phenomena of disenchantment with politics and depoliticization. Nowadays we have unprecedented levels of access to information; politics and the media share a closer relationship than ever before, and the more successful politicians acquire the status of quasi-celebrities. Despite this, there is widespread disenchantment with politics, a growing cynicism about the political process, and much concern about the so-called 'democratic deficit'. And yet, how much do we actually know about the real world of politics? Is our eroding trust in politicians based on a lack of understanding about the activities they actually engage in? In an extensive critical ethnography of the European Parliament, typical 'orders and disorders of discourse' are identified that illustrate the discursive mechanisms by which politics are organised in this and other (transnational, national and regional) arenas. The intricate complexity of 'power-knowledge' in the daily quest for hegemony is analysed in detail, carefully documenting politicians' movement across many 'communities of practice', employing a huge range of genres, conversational styles, argumentative moves, and (in)direct pragmatic devices, as part of their 'professional habitus'. Furthermore, the critical discourse analysis is juxtaposed with its fictionalised representation in the American TV soap The West Wing, which constructs an idealised version of this 'backstage', conveying to a global audience a highly simplistic account of what politics entails. This book goes behind the scenes of politics, uncovering the reality of daily 'politics as usual', and contrasting this with the glamorised, often sensationalised world of politics presented to us on television Contents......Page 8 List of Figures, Tables and Photographs......Page 11 Preface to the Paperback Edition......Page 12 Preface......Page 13 1 Public politics: the ‘frontstage’......Page 20 2 Staging politics: integrating performance, habitus,communities of practice, and the discursive construction of professional identities......Page 26 3 Looking behind the scenes: the ‘backstage’......Page 33 4 Politics/politicians and the media......Page 36 5 Relevant dimensions for the study of everyday politics......Page 42 2 The (Ir)rationality of Politics......Page 47 1 The many – presupposed – meanings of ‘doingpolitics’......Page 48 2 Discourse, politics and power......Page 51 3 Power, knowledge and presuppositions......Page 64 4 Orders and disorders: analyzing organizational everydayroutines......Page 68 1 Introduction: Quo vadis, Europe?......Page 76 2 Multiple identities in the European Parliament......Page 81 3 Onbeing an MEP......Page 99 4 On being European......Page 113 5 Some concluding thoughts......Page 129 1 Long days and much paper......Page 132 2 Ways of knowing: analyzing ethnographic data......Page 138 3 Starting the day......Page 140 4 Committee meeting......Page 145 5 The missed photo opportunity......Page 156 6 Lunch......Page 157 7 Evening lecture......Page 164 8 ‘Doing politics’: performing backstage......Page 170 1 The ‘American Dream’?......Page 175 2 The fictionalization of politics......Page 180 3 Politics and media......Page 181 4 Constructing the modern hero......Page 183 5 Conclusions......Page 202 1 ‘Banal’ politics?......Page 206 2 An integrated interdisciplinary theoretical framework......Page 209 3 Representation and legitimation......Page 213 4 Expectations and disappointments......Page 220 5 The fictionalization of politics and the politicizationof fiction......Page 222 Appendix: Original German Data (Chapter 3)......Page 227 Notes......Page 230 References......Page 242 Index......Page 260 While it may not achieve visibility among a wider public of often suspicious or indifferent EU citizens, Wodak's book comes highly recommended to researchers and higher level students examining the relationship between media and politics.' - International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 'The book will be of great interest to critical scholars of policy-making both for the insight it gives into the backstage world of the EU Parliament and as a demonstration of one of the major methodological approaches available to critical policy analysts - CDA. Wodak makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of 'how politics is done' and, by extension, the work of politicians in how policy is created and reproduced.' - Critical Policy Studies ' ... the book, adopting theoretical and empirical approaches to text analysis, proves to be a comprehensive manual that is both persuasive and influential.- "In this fascinating ethnographic study, and within an integrated interdisciplinary theoretical framework, Ruth Wodak goes beyond the usual analysis of political discourse. She examines the hectic daily 'backstage' of doing politics ("walk and talk") by european parliamentarians as well as in the fictional world of the TV series The West Wing. A great contribution to both discourse studies and political science."--Teun van Dijk, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain 'What if politics was a play? With her trademark impressive methodological rigour and immense creativity, Ruth Wodak takes us on a fascinating journey where she decodes the logic of political discourse, action, and representation. The result is a brilliant, rich, and subtle book.- From the backstage of the European Parliament to popular political sitcoms, she reveals a face of democratic practice that we cannot afford to ignore.' - Michael Bruter, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK ' ... yet another thought provoking and elegant book by Ruth Wodak ... a valuable contribution to the analysis of everyday political routines ... ' - Anna Horoletz, Qualitative Sociology Review 'Wodak's book will provide researchers, students, and political enthusiasts with a very rich study of frontstage and backstage politics.' - Ruth Harman, University of Georgia, USA 'Ruth Wodak is one of the leading and most productive scholars in the field of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).- Her main aim of this book is presented as integrating "these seemingly fragmented findings from many ethnographic case studies into a theoretical, interdisciplinary framework which could throw light on the discursive construction and representation of politics in action" ... ' - Journal of Pragmatics 'Wodak's book is well-worth reading and thinking about.' - Jonathon Roberge, The Centre for Cultural Sociology ' ... with its abundance of suggestive, empirical and methodological insights, this excellent study illuminates a political world that is typically invisible in mainstream European media.- The book vividly demonstrates how the daily power struggle for hegemony goes on in the European Parliament ... an important work for any student or professor of linguistics, theoretical and applied, or political science today.' - Critical Discourse Studies 'In her exemplary book, Ruth Wodak provides a compendium of fifteen years of studies of European Union (EU) politicians working behind the scenes ... the conceptual framework, methodological description, and analysis of text are so weel executed that this book seems certain to spur further studies of its type.' -- Language in Society This present book addresses the discourse of politics, more specifically the questions 'how politics is done' and 'what politicians actually do' ... These questions are addressed on the basis of rich empirical data gathered in previous years as part of wider projects investigating discursive practices within the European Union institutions, research projects conducted by Ruth Wodak and her co-workers either at Lancaster University or at Vienna where she worked before moving to the UK. There are extensive acknowledgements and references to previous projects and related publications.-