Symbolic Policy
Florence Faucher author Laurie Boussaguet author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Publishing:31st Dec '24
£17.00
This title is due to be published on 31st December, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£49.99(9781009478700)
This Element shows public policies overlook symbols, yet they are used by governments and policy-makers to shape public attitudes.
This Element explores the role of symbols in politics, highlighting their significance in shaping citizens' representations and influencing policy decisions. It uses crisis management to analyze symbolic dimensions, in two case studies. It also highlights how politicians use symbols, influenced by timing, national repertoires, and leader personas.Symbols are everywhere in politics. Yet, they tended to be overlooked in the study of public policy. This book shows how they play an important role in the policy process, in shaping citizens' representations thanks to their ability to combine meanings and to stimulate emotional reactions. We use crisis management as a lens through which we analyse this symbolic dimension, and we focus on two case studies (governmental responses to the Covid-19 crisis in Europe in 2020 and to terrorist attacks in France in 2015). We show how the symbolic enables leaders to claim legitimacy for themselves and their decisions, and foster feelings of reassurance, solidarity and belonging. All politicians use the symbolic, whether consciously or otherwise, but what they choose to do varies and is affected by timing, the existence of national repertoires of symbolic actions and the personas of leaders.
ISBN: 9781009290951
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
75 pages