Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyzes some of the multiple roles of symbolism and language in political life. It explores Murray Edelman's arguments about the relations between interests, organization, and symbolism. The book also explores Edelman's claim that articulating public demands through elections does not insure public control over the political process. It ponders Edelman's analysis of legal policy, elite control, and symbolism, and focuses on apparently progressive forms of public policy and innovative forms of implementation. The book constitutes a meditation on Edelman's propositions about language, culture, art and elite domination. It claims that the theory of cultural hegemony does not account for group conflict, and is also historically incomplete. The book suggests new forms of social analysis to replace the positivist and Marxist approaches Edelman attacks.