Political language in Italy and Great Britain

Abstract

Patrick McCarthy underlined the role of political language in the crisis of the Italian Republic. It was both a reflection of the crisis and an active agent of political change. A study of Berlusconi's political language reveals the importance of his new, simplified style of political communication in the creation of his party Forza Italia and of his own personal charisma. He has been able to adapt his rhetoric to changing political circumstances and to different publics. Romano Prodi was successful in 1996 in constructing his image as the ‘anti-Berlusconi’, and Walter Veltroni also broke with the old style of hermetic political discourse acknowledging the inspiration both of Robert Kennedy and Tony Blair, but the language of the centre-left in recent years has generally failed to convey a clear message and has perpetuated obscurity in order to conceal its internal divisions. A comparison with the political language of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair reveals interesting similarities and differences. Thatcher, like Berlusconi, appealed to the need for national revival in the face of the threat from the left, but her language, unlike his, was rooted in the tradition of Protestant individualism and invigorated rather than challenging the existing party system. Blair managed to make skilful use of a new rhetoric of emotion and to incorporate elements of Thatcher's appeal in his ‘new Labour’ synthesis. In conclusion: McCarthy was deeply preoccupied with the possibility of an alternative and more honest style of political communication.     

Linking cultural policy from Great Britain to Canada

The Canada Council marks its fiftieth anniversary in 2007. The third national arts council to be established after the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1946, it was created on the recommendation of a Royal Commission chaired by Vincent Massey, a Canadian philanthropist and diplomat. While it differed from the ACGB in its early scope and organization, it was and is an arm’s‐length body. Using unpublished and published sources, I track Massey’s social contacts during his tenure as High Commissioner to London from 1935 to 1946, where he served on the war‐time boards of the National Gallery and the Tate. This work put him in social contact with Samuel Courtauld, J. M. Keynes, and Kenneth Clark, who were engaged in the governance of British national arts organizations. My findings illustrate the influence that friendships and social networks played in arts policy formulation in these early years of the arts council model.     

Continuity of Ideas and the Politics of Higher Education Expansion in Britain from Robbins to Dearing

This article examines the politics of higher education expansionin Britain between the 1960s and 1990s, bookmarked by the Robbinsand Deanng reports respectively. We argue that throughout thisperiod higher education expansion has been employed, by allpolitical parties, as an instrument of economic growth thoughthis justification has been dressed up to satisfy transientideological preferences. We first present a detailed account,based on archival and primary sources, of the three major reformsto higher education since the 1950s—Robbins, Thatcherism,and Dearing; and second, develop an argument about how the dominantideas about the rationale for higher education constitute aform of path dependency for policy choices once these institutionsare publicly funded and explicitly linked to economic needs.