Politics as Emotional Labour

Abstract

In this Part of the book we will extend the concept of ‘emotional labour’ to the work of politicians. Although they are not positioned to insinuate themselves into our minds in the way we have suggested that journalists are, they are the people — our leaders — to whom we traditionally look for words and deeds to calm our fears and to direct our passions. It is the governors of our nation who, at the basic levels of the psyche, are expected to be the sources of emotional governance. It may seem out of touch to suggest that this is still the case today, when the common response to the mention of a leading politician is, outside of partisan circles, a dismissive if not contemptuous one.¹ We will argue, however, that politicians do still have the power to exercise emotional governance, to get beneath the cynical defences against hope which, with much tutelage from the media, so many people deploy.