The Power of Ideas and Discourse in Political Analysis

Ideas and discourse are essential to politics as well as to political analysis. In The Power of Ideas and Discourse in Political Analysis, Vivien A. Schmidt provides a sweeping appraisal of the many ways in which scholars explain how ideas and discourse are used both by policymakers and by everyday citizens to understand the world, to influence others, and to mobilize for collective action. In so doing, she also presents the many facets of her highly original approach to the power of ideas and discourse, developed over the past quarter century under the mantle of discursive institutionalism.

The book covers the great variety of approaches to ideas and discourse across subfields in political science and beyond. It explores the forms they take, the arguments they make, the discursive processes they accommodate, and the discursive interactions in which agents engage in differing institutional contexts. It delves into the dynamics of change and defines ideational and discursive power. Schmidt identifies the empirical methods, both qualitative and quantitative, and investigates the history and philosophical underpinnings of such approaches. She illustrates these using examples concerning capitalism and democracy, international diplomacy and human rights, conservativism, socialism and populism.

Schmidt's masterful book not only serves to constitute the very large 'field' of ideational and discursive approaches falling under the umbrella of discursive institutionalism. As in the subtitle, it also outlines her distinctive Discursive Institutionalist Perspective, highlighting her philosophical premises and methodological preferences while delineating the boundaries with competing approaches, including rationalist, historical, and sociological institutionalism. Schmidt's ultimate goal is to promote a methodological pluralism that recognizes that because political reality is complex, it requires a diversity of perspectives, with agents' contextualized ideas and discursive interactions at its core.