1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910765795303321

Titolo

Rhetorics of Nordic democracy

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Helsinki, Finland, : Finnish Literature Society / SKS, 2010

ISBN

952-222-786-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (297)

Altri autori (Persone)

KurunmäkiJussi

StrangJohan

Soggetti

Northern Europe, Scandinavia

Semantics, discourse analysis, etc

Regional & national history

Cultural studies

Political ideologies

International relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Sommario/riassunto

"Democracy is today a concept that is overwhelmingly positively evaluated almost everywhere. A lot has been written about socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of democratic regimes as well as their institutional settings. By contrast, not much is known about the political manoeuvres and speech acts by which 'democracy' has been tied to particular regions and cultures in concrete historical situations. This book discusses a series of efforts to rhetorically produce a particular Nordic version of democracy. It shows that the rhetorical figure 'Nordic democracy' was a product of the age of totalitarianism and the Cold War. It explores the ways in which 'Nordic democracy' was used, mainly by the social democrats, to provide the welfare politics with cultural and historical legitimacy and foundations. Thus, it also acknowledges the ideological and geopolitical context in which the 'Nordic welfare state' was conceptualised and canonised.

The contributors of the book are specialists on Nordic politics and



history, who share a particular interest in political rhetoric and conceptual history.
"