Tropes of Politics: Science, Theory, Rhetoric, Action (Rhetoric of the Human Sciences)

Talk is of central importance to politics of almost every kind—it's no accident that when the ancient Greeks first attempted to examine politics systematically, they developed the study of rhetoric. In Tropes of Politics, John Nelson applies rhetorical analysis first to political theory, and then to politics in practice. He offers a full and deep critical examination of political science and political theory as fields of study, and then undertakes a series of creative examinations of political rhetoric, including a deconstruction of deliberation and debate by the U.S. Senate prior to the Gulf War. Using the neglected arts of argument refined by the rhetoric of inquiry, Nelson traces how everyday words like consent and debate construct politics in much the same way that poets such as Mamet and Shakespeare construct plays, and he shows how we are remaking our politics even as we speak. Tropes of Politics explores how politicians take stands and political scientists probe representation, how experts become informed even as citizens become authorities, how students actually reinvent government while professors merely model politics, how senators wage war yet keep comity among themselves. The action, Nelson shows, is in the tropes: these figures of speech and images of deed can persuade us to turn from ideologies like liberalism toward spectacles about democracy or movements into environmentalism and feminism. His argument is that inventive attention to tropes can mean better participation in politics. And the argument is in the tropes—evidence itself as sights or citations, governments as machines or men, politics as hardball or softball, deliberations as freedoms or constraints, borders as fringes or friends. Contents 8 Introduction: Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre 12 Part One: From Figures of Inquiry 20 Chapter 1: Returning Pluralism to Political Science: A Programmatic Manifesto for Rhetoric of Political Inquiry 22 Origins 23 Purposes 24 Politics 28 Problematics 31 Ends 45 Chapter 2: Returning History to Political Science: A Disciplinary Archaeology of Amnesia in Political Argument 53 Disciplines 55 Presentations 58 Histories 59 Traditions 63 Chapter 3: Turning Underground into Approved Rhetorics: A Partial Confession from a Scientizing Discipline 66 Approved versus Underground Rhetorics 70 Confession 73 Propriety 81 Decorum 88 Chapter 4: Overturning Argument in Political Science: An Apostate Meditation on Disappointments of Political Theory 91 Detachment 92 Skepticism 94 Reflection 103 Recognition 106 Ascension 111 Reconstruction 116 Chapter 5: Returning Argument to Political Inquiry: A Mythic Narration of Models, Statistics, and Other Tropes 118 How Political Science Lost Its Arguments 119 The Behavior Vanishes 121 The Regression of Political Science 123 How Rational Choice Theory Got Its Paradoxes 127 Tropes, Traps, Tokens, and Detours 130 Part Two: To Myths of Action 134 Chapter 6: Turning Politics into Words: A Rhetorical Invention of Evidence and Argument 136 Words, Words Everywhere, and Many a Meaning to each 139 Not Just Data but Reality 146 The Center Cannot Hold 148 The Play's the Thing 151 Chapter 7: Turning Ideologies into Myths: A Postmodern Essay in Political and Rhetorical Analysis 154 Analogy 155 Ethos 157 Logos 158 Pathos 160 Mythos 162 Example 166 Chapter 8: Turning Governments Every Which Way but Loose: A Poetic Experiment in Politics and Communication 169 Female Metaphors 172 Mything Words 176 Immersing Myths 179 Measuring Humans 181 Dueling Myths 185 Strange Attractors 189 Chapter 9: Turning Deliberations into Debates: A Dialogical Deconstruction of Senate Rituals of Comity 199 Mis-Stake 202 Myth-Take 204 De-Liberation 207 Oxy-Moron 212 Right-You-All 213 De-Bait 218 Trad(e)-Ition 220 Chapter 10: Turning Stands into Stances: A Figural Argument About Forms of Political Action 224 Form and Content 224 Principle and Compromise 226 Thought and Action 227 Making and Taking 230 Being and Doing 242 Fire and Rain 247 Notes 252 Index 300 "Using the neglected arts of argument refined by the rhetoric of inquiry, Nelson traces how everyday words like consent and debate construct politics in much the same way that poets such as Mamet and Shakespeare construct plays, and he shows how we are remaking our politics even as we speak. Tropes of Politics explores how politicians take stands and political scientists probe representation, how experts become informed even as citizens become authorities, how students actually reinvent government while professors merely model politics, how senators wage war yet keep comity among themselves."--BOOK JACKET Figures Of Speech And Images Of Deed Can Persuade Us To Turn From Ideologies Like Liberalism Toward Spectacles About Democracy Or Movements Into Environmentalism And Feminism. Nelson's Argument Is That Inventive Attention To Tropes Can Mean Better Participation In Politics. John S. Nelson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.