Hallinnon retoriikka ja politiikkojen synty

Onko retoriikalla vielä merkitystä?

Authors

• Hilkka Summa

Abstract

Theoretical and metatheoretical approaches based on notions of rhetoric have recently been presented in several fields of social research. In political and administrative studies in Finland, these approaches have not yet become common. This paper suggests that a rhetorical point of view could be useful in studying political and administrative processes. Most of the administrative practices within the central government (e.g., budgetary and other decision-making) have the character of argumentative processes. The conceptual apparatus of Chaim Perelman’s theory on argumentation is presented and its relevance is examined through some examples taken from a central government housing policy planning text. It seems that rhetorical conventions adopted by government agencies reflect, among other things, the power relations between the administrative levels participating in the central government planning and budgetary processes. The rhetorical conventions adopted in these processes also tend to put limits to what is understood as possible and not possible within a policy field. A rhetorical point of view in studying linguistic processes can be compared to structuralist and semiotic approaches which also aim at deconstructing the »taken-for-granteds» of verbal presentations. The difference is that the rhetorical view emphasizes the responsibility of the rhetorician for the meanings created by his presentation.