George Bush's 1988 campaign pledge, "Read my lips: no new taxes," has
become a mantra for those who distrust politicians and bureaucrats. The
gulf between what political leaders say and do seems to be widening, and
in democratic societies around the world, contributing to an atmosphere
of cynicism and apathy among the citizenry. Understanding the
characteristics and functions of speech in policy processes is a
requirement for trying to overcome this problem; indeed, politicians and
bureaucrats spend a good proportion of their time and resources
discoursing, i.e., writing, speaking, and publishing. However, there has
been scant analysis of political discourse; the aim of this book is to
fill this analytical gap, by exploring political speech from a variety
of perspectives, including normative, epistemological, and empirical.
Incorporating insights from economics, political science, philosophy,
and law, and evidence from the United States, Canada, France, Italy,
Turkey, and the EU, the book addresses a wide variety of timely issues,
including: .
- Fiscal discipline in speeches vs budget balance: Is an improvement
(deterioration) of the budget balance preceded by a more (less)
fiscally disciplined discourse?
- Revenues and spending forecasted in budget speeches vs realised budget
outcomes: Is there a systematic bias? If so, how can we explain it?
- Electoral pledges vs actual realisations: Do governments follow up on
their electoral pledges?
- Ideological stance in party publications vs spending and revenues of
party governments: Do parties of the right and the left speak
different languages? How can we validly classify a government as of
the left or of the right? Is there a systematic difference between
governments of the right and of the left in terms of their policy?
- Speeches by central bank officers vs monetary policy: Can changes in
monetary policy be predicted by official speeches?
- The political business cycle: How can taking into consideration the
speech-action relationship strengthen (or threaten) our knowledge
about electoral and partisan cycles in public spending?
Other questions explored include: Should policy makers always tell the
truth and all the truth? What are the benefits and the costs of
transparency? How can we resolve the apparent contradiction between the
democratic demand for transparency and the efficiency requirement of
secrecy in many policy areas (budget preparation, monetary policy,
foreign policy, security, etc.)? Under which conditions is secrecy
acceptable in a democratic society? To what extent may deception and
lies lead to a breach of trust or to power abuse? What are the most
efficient institutional mechanisms to prevent such abuse? Collectively,
the authors present new insights for understanding political process and
government activity, and suggest avenues for further research.
