Persuasion Models: Thatcherism

Question 1

What is the genre of the party conference speech?

Answer 1

Party conference speeches are a ceremonial (or epideictic) form of discourse, a community-unifying statement of vision

Question 2

What is a prototypical example of epideictic speech?

Answer 2

The sermon:
- It does not always aim to bring new members into a community, but rather to maintain and strengthen the ideology and social bonds that already exist within the congregation (i.e. to shape its identity).
- This is achieved principally by defining and defending a vision for the community

Question 3

What are the audience and the medium of the party conference speech?

Answer 3

Audience: party assembly / general public
Medium: oral delivery of a written text

Question 4

What do we mean with the word “move”?

Answer 4

It is the functional unit in a text that reflects the communicative purpose of a specific part of a text

Question 5

What are the moves of the big conference speech?

Answer 5

• Joke
• Thanking the Predecessors
• Self-Portrait of the Leader (as a caring person, world statesperson, visionary, firm politician)
• Expressing a vision
• Attacking the opposition
• The peroration (leader’s arguments summed

Question 6

What do you know about Margaret Thatcher? (2)

Answer 6

◼ Leader of the Conservative Party (1975- 1990)
◼ Served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990

Question 7

What do you know about Thatcher’s’ politics? (5)

Answer 7

◼ Reduced state intervention in the economy (deregulation)
◼ Free market
◼ Privatization of nationally-owned enterprises
◼ Introduction of market mechanisms into health and education
◼ War vs Argentina in the Falkland Islands.

Question 8

What is Thatcher’s impact on society? (2)

Answer 8

◼ High unemployment rates
◼ Strikes

Question 9

What are the two economic models mentioned by Ms Thatcher?

Answer 9

Socialism and capitalism

Question 10

Which model does she sustain and how does she justify her position?

Answer 10

Capitalism:
- incompatibility between socialism and Britishness
- Capitalism = prosperity and happiness
- Nationalization and control are the opposite of a flourishing country

Question 11

What values are associated with Britishness according to Ms Thatcher?

Answer 11

Creativity and enterprise

Question 12

What is the model/notion that better matches such values?

Answer 12

The free market

Question 13

What is the socialist conception of equality, according to Ms Thatcher?

Answer 13

The socialist conception of equality coincides with the notion of identity, for example the impossibility of following one’s inclinations and developing individual talents.

Question 14

What are the four persuasion models?

Answer 14

Persuasion by:
- Comparison
- Problem/solution
- Authority
- Association

Question 15

Make an example of persuasion by comparison that Ms Thatcher made.

Answer 15

• We are a people who have received more Nobel prizes than any other nation except America, and head for head we have done better than
  America.
• We export more of what we produce than either West Germany, France, Japan or the United States
• What we face today is not a crisis of capitalism, but of Socialism.

Question 16

How does persuasion by comparison work?

Answer 16

The persuader invites us to compare and contrast an argument, policy, product with one or more others.
The implication is that one is better than the others.
“Us” vs. “Them” -> Dualism

Question 17

Where can we find persuasion by comparison aside from political speeches?

Answer 17

Advertisements

Question 18

How does the persuasion Problem / Solution work?

Answer 18

The problem is created in order to impose something as a solution and be seen as the good guy. For example an advertisement about a product for curly hair could be talking about flat hair as a problem.

Question 19

How does persuasion by authority work?

Answer 19

People defer to experts and are more likely to accept a suggestion if it is backed up by authority. For example toothpaste ads always say that the brand is either used or preferred by dentists.

Question 20

How does persuasion by association work?

Answer 20

◼ This persuasion technique tries to link a product, service, or idea with something already liked or desired by the target audience, such as fun, pleasure, beauty, security, intimacy, success, wealth, etc.
◼ The media message doesn’t make explicit claims that you’ll get these things; the association is implied.

Question 21

Why can persuasion by association be a very powerful technique?

Answer 21

A good ad can create a strong emotional response and then associate that feeling with a brand (family = Coke, victory = Nike).
This process is known as emotional transfer.

Question 22

What was Britain’s economic situation like when Thatcher became Prime Minister?

Answer 22

Britain was considered “the sick man of Europe”

Question 23

(in Thatcher’s opinion) What was one of the great debates of her time?

Answer 23

How much of people’s money should be spent by the state and how much people should keep to spend on their families

Question 24

What did Reagan and Thatcher have in common?

Answer 24

They were supporters of the free market

Question 25

Why does Thatcher maintain that the poor and the rich have to pay the same amount of taxes?

Answer 25

So that everybody cares about collective problems and feels involved

Question 26

What social class does Thatcher come from? What do the members of her class think about those who live on welfare money?

Answer 26

Lower middle class. They resent the “slackers” that take and contribute nothing to the community.

Question 27

What’s Thatcher’s position as regards the European Union?

Answer 27

Fiercely against it as it would limit Britain’s sovereignty.