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Beyond a “gesture”: the treatment of the symbolic in public policy analysis

  • Review Article
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French Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

That the symbolic is an identifiable dimension of contemporary politics is unlikely to be a controversial statement. Yet, political scientists have been wary of drawing attention to the category, if not in denial about its importance for their field of study. The article starts with an overview of the public policy literature and shows how the symbolic dimension is often treated as less “real” and as “mere communication”. Despite the growing attention to feedback, narratives and qualitative approaches to the evaluation of policies, the symbolic remains a terrain treaded with care. In the second section, we propose a definition of the symbolic that highlights some of the key aspects that are relevant to political analysis and for the analysis of their role in public policy. In the third section, we advocate taking into account how public policies incorporate and use the symbolic and propose several avenues of research.

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Notes

  1. “The rhetoric of governments” (Dye 1987, p. 355); “Policy talk and rhetoric or ‘words’” (Parsons 1992, p. 178); “Words that succeed and policies that fail” (Edelman 2013a); “Les discours et les actions de communication” (Hassenteufel 2008, p. 35); etc.

  2. See also the special issue of Political Communication (1993), 10(2).

  3. Barker shows how some rituals are about self-legitimation (Barker 2001).

  4. Other policies had the same objective of making “real” the existence of the Republic (citizenship education or investments in urban regeneration are two other examples).

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by a public grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the “Investissements d’Avenir” program within the framework of the LIEPP center of excellence (ANR11LABX0091, ANR 11 IDEX000502).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

    Laurie Boussaguet

  2. Centre d’études européennes et de politiques comparées (CEE), CNRS, Sciences Po, Paris, France

    Florence Faucher

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  1. Laurie Boussaguet
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  2. Florence Faucher
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Correspondence to Laurie Boussaguet.

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Boussaguet, L., Faucher, F. Beyond a “gesture”: the treatment of the symbolic in public policy analysis. Fr Polit 18, 189–205 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-020-00107-9

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