This book seeks to develop Rhetoric as a field of knowledge in an important new direction, European Union politics. The authors analyse what could be called a European style of politics: textual strategies and rhetorical styles evolving within and around the EU's supranational and national institutions. By fusing rhetorical and sociological approaches, political thought and culture, the book contributes to the analysis of the 'political' as a way of thinking and judging the political aspect of any phenomena.

Focuses on normal, informal political language in the discourse on European and EU politics Examines the indeterminacy and flexibility of what is termed 'rhetorical action' in the realm of high politics Contains both theoretical insight and illustrative, self-standing case studies

Autorentext

Niilo Kauppi is Research Director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France.
Kari Palonen is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. The Political Bricolage of EU Theories.- 3. National Politics and Transnational Feminisms in Early Twentieth-Century Europe: Perspectives from the Francophone Sphere.- 4. Saving European Democracy: British Debates on European Unifications in 1948-49.- 5. Between Conceptual Innovation and 'There is No Alternative': Conceptual Politics in Building the EU as a Polity.- 6. The Colonialism of Partisanship: Politics of National Interest and the National Science Foundation in the U.S. Congressional Debates.- 7. Mapping Postmodern Patterns of Political Agency and Rhetoric: Established Politics Facing Bricolage.- 8. Politics at Distance: Parliamentary Politics in the Face of New Challenges.