Symbolic Policy

This Element shows public policies overlook symbols, yet they are used by governments and policy-makers to shape public attitudes.

Laurie Boussaguet (Author), Florence Faucher (Author)

9781009478700, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 January 2025

82 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.1 cm, 0.27 kg

Symbols are everywhere in politics. Yet, they tended to be overlooked in the study of public policy. This book shows how they play an important role in the policy process, in shaping citizens' representations thanks to their ability to combine meanings and to stimulate emotional reactions. We use crisis management as a lens through which we analyse this symbolic dimension, and we focus on two case studies (governmental responses to the Covid-19 crisis in Europe in 2020 and to terrorist attacks in France in 2015). We show how the symbolic enables leaders to claim legitimacy for themselves and their decisions, and foster feelings of reassurance, solidarity and belonging. All politicians use the symbolic, whether consciously or otherwise, but what they choose to do varies and is affected by timing, the existence of national repertoires of symbolic actions and the personas of leaders.

1. What is the symbolic?
2. The symbolic: an overlooked dimension of policy
3. The symbolic and legitimacy
4. The symbolic, reassurance and trust in the future
5. The symbolic, unity and trust 'in us'
6. The symbolic and time
7. The symbolic, structure and agency
8. The effects of the symbolic
9. Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]