Isabela Fairclough
(University of Central Lancashire, School of Journalism, Language and Communication)
Deliberative Discourse1
ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the parliamentary debate on university tuition fees that took place in
December 2009. Starting from a view of deliberation as abstract genre, it proposes a framework for
the analysis and the evaluation of argumentation in deliberative activity types. The framework
consists of a deliberation scheme and an attached set of critical questions, designed to increase the
rationality of decision-making in conditions of uncertainty and risk. Integrating a dialectical and
rhetorical perspective, the chapter also i di ates ho a al sis of f a i g a e articulated with
analysis and evaluation of argumentation, e.g. how particular definitions, metaphors and analogies,
intended to sway a potential decision in a preferred way, contribute premises to a deliberative
process. The analysis also indicates how this approach can contribute to the study of argumentation
in institutional contexts: institutions provide agents with reasons for action that are in principle nonoverridable and act as extrinsic constraints on what agents can reasonably do. Finally, the
relationship between normative and explanatory critique in CDA is also briefly addressed.
Introduction
Deli e atio is one of the most frequent keywords in political science journals. A search within the
titles, keywords and abstracts of articles published in some of the most influential journals in the
field over the last 10 years typically yields dozens of results (e.g. 24 articles in Political Theory). An
identical search within Discourse & Society, Discourse Studies and Journal of Language and Politics –
yields surprisingly few results: 2, zero and 6 articles, respectively, featuring deli e atio o
deli e ati e i titles, ke o ds o a st a ts. A full text search for these terms produces these
results: 32 articles in Journal of Language and Politics, 41 in Discourse & Society, 15 in Discourse
Studies, compared to 216 in Political Theory and 114 in British Journal of Political Science since 2005.
While, judging by these statistics, discourse analysts appear to be less interested in the study of
deliberation, political analysts seem to regard it as the organizing principle of political
o
u i atio esea h , its e t al o ga izi g the e (Gastil & Black 2008). On this view, political
communication research is a form of deliberation critique, where political and media practices are
constantly measured against the deliberative ideal.1
However, neither political theorists nor discourse analysts seem to be aware of the way
deliberation is theorized in argumentation theory, as an argumentative genre, nor of how
deliberative practice can be systematically evaluated as argumentative activity. This chapter
attempts to address this failure of communication across disciplinary divides and provide a
framework for the analysis and evaluation of deliberative practice, usable by analysts of political
discourse in various disciplines. I will suggest that deliberation fundamentally involves the critical
1
Peer-reviewed chapter draft, to be published in the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse
Analysis, edited by John Flowerdew and John Richardson.
1
testing of alternative proposals for action, followed by choice among those proposals that have
withstood critical testing, as a basis for decision and action.
In this chapter, I will also integrate analysis and evaluation of argumentation with a CDA
perspective (see Kienpointner, this volume, on argumentation theory in CDA), and indicate how a
dialectical approach to argumentation can contribute to CDA concerns with ideology and power. For
this purpose, I will develop an analysis included in Chapter 6 of Fairclough & Fairclough (2012), of the
parliamentary debate on the proposal to increase higher education tuition fees in the UK. I will keep
the primary focus on a dialectical approach to argument evaluation ( i.e. one in which the
acceptability practical proposals and arguments depends on their capacity for withstanding critical
questioning), but I will redefine the argument scheme for deliberation and its associated set of
critical questions. I will also reflect on how rhetorical concerns can be integrated into a basically
dialectical view by examining how certain considerations were made selectively more salient in the
tuition fees debate, including by metaphorical re-definition, so as to atta k the oppo e ts
standpoint more effectively and thus hopefully re-direct the deliberative outcome. I will discuss
these aspects u de the oad u
ella of f a i g theo (Reese et al. 2001; D A gelo & Kuypers
2010).
Deliberation from a dialectical and rhetorical perspective
In this chapter I analyze deliberative discourse in the political field, with a narrow focus on
parliamentary discourse (arguably, the paradigmatic case of deliberative discourse). Not all
deliberative situations are political: people deliberate, either by themselves or together with others,
on all sorts of non-political, private issues. The political field, however, is inherently connected with
argumentation and deliberation, though this is not to say that all political discourse is argumentative
or deliberative. In politics, arguments coexist with narratives, descriptions and explanations (other
macro speech-acts), deliberation co-exists with negotiation, adjudication and mediation (other
ge es , a d i A istotelia te s deli e ati e heto i
o-exists with so- alled epidei ti
e e o ial heto i . Politics is inherently connected with argumentation and deliberation because
it is oriented to decision-making, but also because the political is an institutional order whose very
fabric gives people reasons for acting in particular ways. The rights and obligations that people have
in virtue of being part of the political order will figure as premises in their reasoning. Searle (2010)
alls su h easo s deo ti easo s Fai lough & Fai lough 2012, 2013; see also Fairclough
forthcoming a).
Politics is about making choices and collective decisions about what action to take in
response to a situation. Because of fundamental differences of interests, purposes and values, and
different ways of interpreting the situation, making collective decisions is almost invariably an
adversarial process in which participants will advocate conflicting lines of action. There is both
unreasonable and reasonable disagreement in politics. While unreasonable disagreement can
legitimately hold the prospect of disagreement resolution (one party can be expected to retract their
standpoint), reasonable disagreement may persist without producing a convergence of views, with
apparently good a gu e ts ei g put fo a d o all sides. This situation is typical of political
parties that may advocate different policies in light of legitimate goals and values that are either
different (reasonable value pluralism) or fairly similar, but differently weighted or prioritized.
According to Kock (2009, 2013), deliberation over what to do when several reasonable
alternatives are possible was the proper domain of Aristotelian rhetoric. For Aristotle, he observes,
rhetoric was relevant to those domains where choice among alternatives was involved – the moral,
political and legal domains. The fact that in these domains there will almost always be divergent
reasonable arguments on any issue opens up a legitimate space for rhetorical argumentation, aimed
at changing a audie e s priorities and persuading them to adopt a standpoint that is not the one
and only reasonable standpoint they ought to choose. It also opens up a space for trying to make a
weak argument, or a worse alternative, look better than it actually is. There is, in other words, a
2
legitimate and an illegitimate use of rhetorical argumentation, underlying a commonly-held positive
or a negative view of rhetoric (Fairclough & Fairclough 2012: 56-61).
The framework presented here (as in previous work) integrates the rhetorical perspective
into the dialectical one. To take a dialectical perspective on argumentation is to view a process of
critical questioning as crucial in assessing the reasonableness of a (practical, epistemic or evaluative)
standpoint. For example, a practical proposal is unreasonable if critical questioning uncovers critical
objections against it, such as unacceptable potential consequences. Consequences, however, can be
made to look more or less (un)acceptable by being rhetorically presented in a particular way (the
same being true for any other premise or conclusion.) Critical questioning would also ask whether
such ways of representing are acceptable. A e pa ti ula
a s of f a i g a p o le
or a
p oposal s alleged o se ue es rationally acceptable or not?
Deliberation and debate in argumentation theory
Deliberation is an argumentative genre in which practical or pragmatic argumentation is the main
argument scheme. Van Eemeren (2010: 138-143) distinguishes among genres, activity types and
concrete speech events. A particular parliamentary debate (e.g. the debate that took place on 9
December 2010 in the British Parliament on the proposal to raise tuition fees) instantiates the more
abstract category of parliamentary debate as activity type (i.e. a specific genre format), which in turn
instantiates the abstract genre of deliberation. Deliberation and debate are thus placed at different
levels of abstraction: deliberation is an abstract genre, while debate is an activity type,
i sta tiated i pa ti ula o ete de ates .
The intended outcome of deliberative activity types is a normative-practical conclusion
(judgment) that can ground decision and action. For any individual agent, this cognitive outcome can
be followed by an intention to act, a decision to act and by the action itself, but does not need to be.
Parliamentary debates require more than the minimal outcome of a normative-practical judgment. It
is part of their underlying institutional point that they should lead to a decision for action, yet this
decision may not be in agreement with the normative judgment arrived at by each and every
participant who has been involved in deliberation. This is to say that disagreements among all
participants are not necessarily resolved, and the outcome that can be reasonably expected is a
collective decision, not a shared (unanimous) normative judgment. From an external perspective,
the critic may look at such unresolved disagreement as a legitimate manifestation of reasonable
pluralism in weighing and prioritizing values. Interestingly, however, from the perspective of each
individual engaged in the debate, disagreement may seem unreasonable to the end, as
argumentative opponents will tend to be viewed as being wrong and in possession of unreasonable
proposals (proposals leading to unacceptable consequences) (Fairclough & Fairclough 2012: 200207).
“ta ti g f o Walto s
,
a) classification of dialogue types pe suasio dialogues ,
information-seeking dialogues , inquiry dialogues , negotiation dialogues , deliberation dialogues
a d eristic dialogues , informal logicians have proposed a useful analytical framework for
e o st u ti g deli e ati e dialogue , i ol i g eight stages o o es McBurney et al 2007). The
starting point is said to be an open question that expresses a problem to be solved in a particular
situation (the Open stage). The open question is followed by a discussion of what goals should be
pursued, what constraints on action there might be and what perspectives might be used to
evaluate proposals (Inform). Proposals are then made (Propose), jointly discussed and evaluated
(Consider), then accepted, rejected or revised (Revise). Finally, an option is recommended
(Recommend), accepted or rejected by each participant, and the deliberation dialogue is closed
(Confirm, Close). Various activity types will diverge more or less significantly from this normative
template. Parliamentary debates do not start from an open question, but seem to begin directly
with the Propose stage at which only one proposal (a motion ) is submitted and critically tested.
3
Analyzing and evaluating deliberative practice: argument schemes and critical questions
The approach to political discourse developed in Fairclough & Fairclough (2012), drawing on both
CDA and argumentation theory, and underlain by a critical rationalist philosophical perspective
(Miller 1994), suggests a view of deliberation essentially consisting of the critical testing of
alternative proposals for action. The ost sig ifi a t pe spe ti e i light of hi h p oposals a e to
be tested is a consequentialist one: would the consequences be acceptable or not? The term
onsequence efe s both to the goals (as intended consequences, generated by particular
normative sources) and to other foreseeable consequences, intended or unintended (for example,
risks). Unacceptable consequences include impacts on goals which should arguably not be
u de i ed e.g. othe age ts legiti ate goals , as ell as i pa ts o a gua l on-overridable
deo ti easo s su h as ights a d o ligatio s “ea le
, a isi g f o institutional facts (e.g.
moral norms, laws, rules, commitments), which should act as constraints on what agents can
reasonably choose to do. This section defines some of the concepts involved in analyzing
deliberation and suggests a deliberation scheme and a set of critical questions for the evaluation of
deliberative activity types (Fairclough forthcoming a, b).2
Argumentation in deliberative activity types is succinctly represented in Figure 1, a
restatement of the scheme proposed in Fairclough & Fairclough 2012, connecting two argument
schemes, practical/pragmatic arguments from goals and from consequence. Deliberating agents put
forward practical proposals that might help them resolve practical problems and achieve their goals
(intended consequences). Deciding to adopt proposal A will be reasonable if the conjecture
(hypothesis) that A is the right course of action has been subjected to thorough critical testing in
light of all the knowledge available and has withstood all attempts to find critical objections against
it. A critical objection is an overriding reason why the action should not be performed, i.e. a reason
that has normative priority in the context (or is not overridden by another, stronger reason, in the
p o ess of eighi g easo s). If the proposal withstands critical questioning, then it can be
provisionally accepted, subject to rebuttal by critical objections arising at a later stage, or by
emerging negative feedback, as the action unfolds.
The centre and right-hand side of Figure 1 represent arguments from goals and positive
consequence that can (allegedly) count in favour of the conclusion. The left-hand side represents the
argument from negative consequence that can in principle rebut that conclusion, if the
consequences are deemed unacceptable (if they are critical objections). However, predicted
negative consequences need not constitute critical objections against a proposal. This could be
e ause, should the a ise, the e is so e Pla B , so e mitigating or insurance (compensation)
strategy in place, or because they can be traded off against the positive consequences. In such cases,
the conclusion in favour of A may still stand, in spite of counter-considerations. In deliberative
activity types, critical testing goes together with a weighing of reasons (as the etymology of the word
suggests: libra ea s s ale , librare ea s to eigh ) and the final judgment will be made on
balance.
Figure 1. Proposal for the structure of practical reasoning in deliberative activity types
4
There are three ways of challenging a practical argument: challenging the premises, the conclusion
and the inference (Walton 2007b). In the set of questions I suggest below (Table 1), questions CQ1CQ atte pt to u de i e the p e ises of the a gu e t f o goals, uestio i g thei t uth o
rational acceptability. If it is the case that the acceptability of these premises can be taken for
granted, questions CQ4 and CQ5 come in to test the practical proposal (conclusion) itself, and may
indicate that it ought to be abandoned. The point of critical questioning is, therefore, first to
eliminate the unreasonable proposals from a set of alternatives; secondly, if several reasonable
alternatives have survived, to enable non-arbitrary choice amongst them, in light of whatever
criteria are relevant in the context (CQ6). All of these critical challenges can themselves be
challenged – this is the essence of the dialectical process as a process of open-ended critical
dialogue. For example, while the critic may question the reasonableness of a proposal on the
grounds of unacceptable consequences, the proponent may claim that the consequences are not
unacceptable because they can be successfully mitigated; this claim can in turn be disputed.3
Challe gi g the atio al a epta ilit
t uth of the p e ises
(CQ1) Is it true that, in principle, doing A1 ... An can lead to G?
(CQ2) Is it true that the Agent is in circumstances C (as stated or presupposed)? 4
(CQ3) Is it true that the Agent actually has the stated/presupposed motives (goals and underlying
normative sources)?
Challenging the reasonableness of the conclusion
(CQ4) Are the intended consequences of doing A1 ... An acceptable? 5
(CQ5) Are the foreseeable unintended consequences (i.e. risks) of doing A1 ... An acceptable? [If not,
is there a Plan B, mitigation or insurance strategy in place that can make it reasonable to undertake
A1 ... An?]
Challenging the inference
(CQ6) [Among reasonable alternatives,] is An comparatively better in the context?
Table 1. Critical questions for the evaluation of practical proposals
Critical questioning in this format integrates deliberation about means and deliberation about goals
within a single recursive procedure. A successful challenge will redirect the deliberative process to
some antecedent stage or to the starting point. If the goals or other consequences are unacceptable,
then a new practical proposal has to be made and the testing procedure will start again.
The critical examination of the proposal to increase higher education tuition fees: arguments and
counter-arguments
The debate on tuition fees that took place in the House of Commons on December 9, 2010 was a
iti al e a i atio of the p oposal highe edu atio
otio to i ease fees to a maximum of
5
£9000 a year. (The transcript is publicly available in the Hansard Report 6 and is 45,167 words long).
On behalf of the government, as proponent, the Business Secretary (Vince Cable) begins by making
the following argument: tuition fees should be increased, in a context of lack of funds (cuts of 25%
need to be made in the education budget to help reduce the deficit), in order to ensure a financially
sustainable higher education system which maintains high-quality standards of performance and is
based on a progressive system of graduate contributions. The proposal has been, he says, critically
examined in government (where alternatives have also been examined) and has emerged as the
only p a ti al alte ati e . The g aduate epa e t s ste is p og essi e : no up-front fees will be
charged, repayment of loans will begin at a certain income threshold (£21,000) and any outstanding
debt will be written off after 30 years. The argument in favour of increasing fees has implicitly
withstood critical questioning in government, and is now being submitted to Parliament for debate
and voting.
During the course of the debate, the opponents of the motion argue that tuition fees should
not be increased, primarily on the grounds of unacceptable unintended consequences (CQ5): the
proposal will have an unacceptable impact on social mobility. The individual premises which
allegedly support it are also challenged. The stated goals and values are said not to be the real ones
(i.e. there are allegedly covert, ideological goals at stake), and the stated goals will not be achieved
(no money will be saved) – the argument fails CQ3 and CQ1 respectively. There is also a strong
argument against increasing fees invoking the promise not to increase fees made by the LiberalDemocrats before they were in government, as well as from a commitment to fairness.
Commitments create obligations which act as deontic constraints on action; these are in principle
non-overridable, which is why disregarding them would be unacceptable (the proposal would fail
CQ5).
Having identified the main arguments and main lines of criticism, let us look more closely at
how these arguments and critical challenges are formulated linguistically in various ways by the
participants. Unacceptable potential consequences are predominantly e p essed i te s of the isk
that the i eased de t ill put off poo e people , o ill dete people f o poo a kg ou ds
f o goi g to u i e sit
ele a t o o da e hits fo put off ,
fo dete * ,
hits for
poo * i o i atio
ith dete , put off , dis ou age a d si ila contexts). There are other
a s of e p essi g u desi a le o se ue es:
hits fo i pa t – on budgets, universities,
stude ts, the poo ;
fo effe t – on access, social mobility, students. The supporters of the
motion deny that such negative consequences will materialize, on the basis of evidence from the
past. ( The e ide e... si e fees a e i ... sho s that... fees supported by loans do not deter poor
students from going to university .) 7
The values of fai ess , p og essi ity a d so ial o ilit are used as reasons both in
arguments for and against the motion. In arguments in favour, they are supposed to be the
normative sources – here, legitimate values, institutional commitments and active concerns –
underlying the goals. (Briefly, the government has an institutional commitment to fairness, as a
collectively recognized value, and is actively motivated by a concern for fairness). In arguments
against, they appear as non-overridable values and commitments that the proposal will allegedly
affect adversely. (This is to say: the proposal will damage social mobility or will be unfair; this is
unacceptable; therefore, the proposal should be rejected). There are 68 relevant occurrences of
*fair* i ludi g u fai , fai ess in arguments that challenge the proposal on the grounds of
being unfair, or endorse it on the grounds of being fair. This means either that the proposal allegedly
fails CQ5 (the foreseeable consequences will be the opposite of what is arguably intended, i.e.
fairness will be negatively affected), or that it successfully withstands CQ5 (there will be no negative
impact on fairness). The first passage below is part of an argument against the proposal, the second
is part of an argument in favour, advanced respectively by David Blunkett (Labour) and Alok Sharma
(Conservative):
6
Introducing a £9,000 a year fee on top of cuts in youth and careers services across the
country is a deliberate, consistent and unfair attack on young people in our country and
their future. That is why it should be rejected. It is not fair to young people and their
families, it is not fair to universities, and it is not fair to our country and the future of
Britain...
The coalition's proposed system is fair. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that it is more
progressive than the current system... It is fair to all taxpayers that students, who will on
average earn significantly more than non-graduates in their lifetime, make a contribution to
their education after they graduate; it is only fair to ... students and their parents that they
do not have to find any money up-front; and it is fair because graduates will pay less per
month than they do under the current system.
“o ial o ilit is a othe ke e p essio
o u e es, i either argumentative or narrative
passages, e.g. about how social mobility decreased during Labour governments). In arguments,
so ial o ilit is used eithe to efute the p oposal,
allegi g that the i pa t o so ial o ilit
will be unacceptable (the proposal fails CQ5), or to support it, by alleging that the proposal is fully
compatible with a concern for social mobility (it withstands CQ5): raising tuition fees will not deter
students from applying. There are also 46 o u e es of a ess* fai a ess , improving access ),
of pa ti ipatio
ide i g pa ti ipatio ) and 42 of p og essi e / p og essi it , mainly in
arguments in favour of the proposal, which (thanks to the repayment scheme) is generally thought
to e p og essi e .
There are numerous attempts to challenge the proposal by arguing that it is not the only
alternative, that there are other, more reasonable choices that are being disregarded. One
intervention argues that, rather than cutting the budget for education, the government ought to
make bankers contribute more to reducing the deficit. Another supports a business education tax,
which would allegedly generate £3.9 billion and thus allow tuition fees to be scrapped altogether. A
third focuses on taxing the wealthy and pursuing tax evasion: the £6 billion in uncollected tax from
Vodafone is said to amount to more tha a hole ea s tuitio fees. La ou s own alternative, it is
said, would have been a moderate increase a fe hu d ed pou ds , not a trebling of fees.
O e all, the e a e
ele a t o o da e hits fo
hoi e* i.e. efe i g to the
go e
e t s hoi e of a tio ,
fo hoose hose , hose ,
fo optio
opt* a d
fo
alte ati e* , i a gu e ts that eithe p ese t the i ease i tuitio fees as the o l easo a le
alternative, or deny that this is the case (as well as denying that the go e
e t had o hoi e .
According to a Labour MP,
… the Conservatives say that there is no choice: they have to raise fees to make up the
funding shortfall. There is a choice, however. They could choose not to cut the funding
budget by 80%, and they could choose not to privatise university teaching.
Suggesting that there are other reasonable options, while denying the reasonableness of the
proposal that is being debated, suggests that a return to the starting point is desirable (though
procedurally impossible in this debate), and other alternatives should be critically tested instead.
There are many appeals for more time, asking the Government to row back a little bit, to think
again, to delay this decision today and to give proper, grown-up, sensible consideration to all the
possi le alte ati es . As o e Labour MP o se es, poli
ade speedil a d on the hoof is not good
poli . In other words, more extended debate is needed for a decision that is not only procedurally
legitimate (the result of voting), but legitimate in a more substantive sense (the result of considered
deliberation).
7
Decision-making, framing and rhetoric
F a i g is a i te esti g analytical concept, but by all accounts a very confused and ill-defined one.
F a i g theo ists a e the fi st to a k o ledge that thei field is a fractured paradigm , with a highly
scattered conceptualization at its core (Entman 1993: 51). Loosely, framing is said to involve the
selective emphasis of a particular perspective or angle on an issue, generating the highly vexing
phenomenon of framing effects , where (often small) changes in the presentation of an issue or an
event produce (sometimes large) changes of opinion (Chong & Druckman 2007: 104).
I suggest that, whenever decision-making is at stake, framing can be best understood from
an argumentative perspective, as a process whereby a particular premise is made more salient or
emphasized by the arguer as an overriding consideration that the audience should reason from. A
second mechanism is often at work, where the basic premises of the deliberation scheme (goals,
consequences, circumstances) can themselves be supported by other premises in the form of
rhetorically persuasive definitions, metaphors and analogies, which (via their inherent bias) will
potentially shift the conclusion (decision) in favour of a proposal or against it. Figure 2 shows three
of the possi le lo atio s of su h X a ou ts to Y , o X is a ki d of Y , o X is like Y p e ises, ithin
the deliberation scheme (see Fairclough & Mădroane forthcoming, for the analysis of an
environmental policy debate in these terms, and Fairclough forthcoming a).
Figure 2. F a i g de isio s: the a gu e tati e fu tio of
etapho s, a alogies a d defi itio s
The alleged consequences of the proposal to increase tuition fees are formulated in various ways by
its critics, in order to make clearer to the audience what the proposal (allegedly) amounts to and
thus increase the persuasiveness of the counter-argument. The consequences are thereby made
selectively more salient, as the allegedly overriding reasons on the basis of which that the audience
should decide. The proposal is said to unacceptably move , shift or transfer the entire cost of, and
responsibility for, education onto the students and away from the state a d u a epta l replace
state funding by private funding (14 relevant expressions in total), impose ippli g lifelo g de t
burdens on stude ts o u e es of u de , dest o the oppo tu ities, hopes a d life hances
of a hole ge e atio
, de o alise highe edu atio (1), and so on. Its consequences are also
expressed metaphorically as breaking the partnership between state, society and students (3
o u e es , ith the state steppi g out of its o ligatio s; similarly, as damaging the balance
between what students, the state and employers ought to contribute to education (8 relevant
o u e es of ala e ). As one MP puts it, the go e
e t ha e th o
a a the s ales a d a e
loading the whole cost – not a bigger part, but the whole cost – of a university education on to the
8
g aduate . As the example below shows, such consequences (occasionally made even more salient
by the use of metaphor) are intended to conclusively reject the proposal:
The essential ingredient of this debate is that we are breaking the partnership between
student, state and university. We are saying that the state can step out of the arrangement,
and that the arrangement should be entirely between the student and the university. It is my
contention that that is unacceptable.
The proposal is also edefi ed etapho i all
ti es as a atta k a d o e as a assault an
assault on the entire ethos of the British university , and also as a case of pulli g the d a
idge
up or pulli g the ladde a a f o poo e stude ts . Such metaphors (in X = Y premises) support
the premise which says that the consequences are unacceptable, thus feeding into the argument
against the proposal (left-hand side of diagram):
Tonight, Opposition Members speak for ordinary working people... and for all those who are
outraged by this attack on the ambitions and aspirations of the brightest and best of
Britain's next generation. An abstention tonight is not enough. I urge the House to reject
these proposals.
Positive consequences can also be made rhetorically more salient, hence potentially overriding.
Increasing tuition fees is said to amount to putting power in the hands of students and universities .
On the right-hand side of the diagram, this way of re-framing the consequences (as empowering
students) will support the argument in favour.
Challenging the terms of debate
While most of the debate focuses on whether the proposal survives criticism in light of its impact on
publicly recognized, legitimate goals and values, there is also some questioning of the stated
premises of the argument from goals. There is one main intervention (by David Blunkett, Labour)
which lai s that the hoi e to i ease fees is ideologi al , ot e o o i , a d t o hi h sa that
it is politi al , ot e o o i , i.e. it is ot oti ated the need to reduce the deficit. According to
Blunkett,
The position is very clear: the scheme is designed to change the architecture of higher
education in this country. It is ideologically based, not logically based (...) That is a simple
fact, and that is why this is a value-laden, ideological issue, not one of rationality, not one of
deficit reduction.
The go e
e t s alleged o
it e t to fai ess is also challenged. In other words, the argument,
as stated, is a rationalization, or fails CQ3 (the overt reasons are not the real reasons):
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is impossible to explain to students ... that the proposals
a e fai , he the Go e
e t a e o i g a k o the a ke s le ? Does that ot sho
what their priorities are for this country?
Beyond this, there is surprisingly little questioning of the stated premises of the proposal, and
practically no significant critical engagement with the presuppositions and underlying assumptions
of the debate. In some interventions, students are referred to as o su e s o usto e s
ti es
i total , hile highe edu atio is efe ed to as a
a ket (12 times), with student choice
presented as a fundamental mechanism, yet such representations seem to be presupposed or taken
for granted, and are not challenged:
9
The proposed changes will be an important step in ensuring that the money follows the
student and will go further towards making universities more accountable to students as
customers.
There is an overwhelming presence of what we might call, in Fillmorian terms (see FrameNet, n.d.) a
o
e ial t a sa tio f a e . This i ludes a o e fo the ualit of the stude t e pe ie e
concordance hits) i te s of getti g alue fo o e , in a context where some universities are
apparently deli e i g poo se i e a d si pl pass[i g] the ost o to the o su e – in other
o ds, the stude t . It also i ludes Vi e Ca le s suggestio that u i e sities should ot def the
p i iple of ope ati g o a o petiti e ost asis , i.e. should ot hoose to ope ate like a a tel ,
uniformly charging the maximum £9000. On the whole, not surprisingly, the arguments are
fo ulated to a la ge e te t i fi a ial te s, i te s of o e
hits , osts
, pa i g
hits fo *pa * , fu di g
, ha gi g
, spe di g
, i est e t
, i te est
hits i the ele a t se se , a d de t
. There are only three interventions that refer to the
u desi a ilit of p i atisi g edu atio , but this is understood only in terms of replacing public
funding by self-funding.
The most interesting challenge to the premises of the argument, and to the very nature of
the disagreement, appears in a handful of interventions (e.g. by John Denham, Labour, below) that
try to redefine what is really at stake in the debate. What is at stake, allegedly, is the very principle
of state funded education, the balance between what the state and students should contribute:
[T]oday's vote is on a narrow issue – the fee cap. Behind that, however, is the most profound
change in university funding since the University Grants Committee was set up in the 1920s.
It is the ending of funding for most university degrees. It is a huge burden of debt on
graduates. (...) Fees are being trebled simply to reduce the 80% cut in the funding of
university teaching, not to raise extra money. Most graduates will be asked not to pay
something towards their university education, but to pay the entire cost of their university
education. (...) That is what is at stake today.
As Denham goes on to suggest, potential agreement on the progressive nature of the repayment
scheme should not obscure the fact that there is (or should be) significant disagreement on whether
the state should withdraw so completely from supporting higher education, on whether the system
should be altered so radically.
What seems to be suggested in such interventions is that the parliamentary debate is on the
wrong issue, and that another, more fundamental debate ought to take place first, in preparation for
voting, a debate that would challenge premises and assumptions that are here taken for granted.
This debate would p esu a l halle ge the p o le atizatio of the situatio and the stated goals,
suggest other legitimate goals and explore alternative proposals. This would be a case of
deliberation over the ends of political action as well as over political alternatives, which cannot
technically occur here, yet whose need is suggested repeatedly. The general lines of Browne Review,
o
issio ed
La ou i
to p epa e the a fo a i ease i tuitio fees (as Cable
announces right from the beginning), are taken for granted in this debate, and not questioned.
There are 41 references to the Browne Review, none of which takes issue with its recommendations.
To o lude, apa t f o a fe ta ge tial e a ks e.g. o the istake elief that su je ts
ha e o alue u less the ha e a alue i the a ketpla e ), there was no substantive critique of a
number of assumptions: that students are rational consumers; that universities are businesses
(commercial enterprises) selling services; that education is a market in which the only way to
improve quality is to operate according to laws of supply and demand; that making students pay will
create more choice, more accountability and drive up quality. The te s of de ate see No a
Fai lough s hapte i this olu e were not questioned, while (sadly) a huge amount of time was
spent on arguing from consequences which have, for the most part, not materialized (e.g. student
numbers have not gone down). Some predicted consequences have materialized, though: practically
10
all universities in England have rushed to charge the maximum amount8, and it is also likely that
more debt than originally anticipated will never be paid off, which cancels out the financial benefits
of increasing fees, as as p edi ted
those ho a gued that the policy does not make economic
se se . The benefit seems to be mainly on paper: from an accounting perspective, repayable loans
are not categorized as state spending, which makes it possible to disguise the actual increase in
government borrowing and public sector net debt (McGettigan 2013: 2).
A growing literature on these recent changes to higher education, including Collini (2012)
and McGettigan (2013), challenges the (neoliberal) assumptions above and frames its critique in
terms which are very different from those in which the parliamentary debate was cast. For Collini
(2012, Chapter 7), the analogies between universities and businesses, students and consumers, are
spurious. One shared premise of this critique is that austerity provided the pretext for a covert
privatisation agenda, intended to open up higher education to private equity and commercial
companies that will distribute profits to shareholders and owners. A othe is that as e eep
to a ds a o po atized a ketpla e , a d as go e
e t fu di g for education disappears, so will
public accountability, democratic governance and the protection of the public interest (McGettigan
2013: 2-3, 152-54). One cannot help feeling therefore that the December 2010 debate missed the
main point of the proposed changes, in spite of those few interventions (Blunkett, Denham) that
warned about the bigger agenda that was arguably involved. Nobody thought of exploring what
p i atisatio
ight involve, beyond the replacement of public funding by self-funding. For example,
how it might open the way for profit-making private education providers (operating on the back of
taxpayer-funded loans), or lead to alterations to the original terms of the loan (including the possible
sale of the so-called student loan book). More significantly, nobody challenged the proposal in
terms of the potential erosion of the public, democratic accountability of universities in the
corporate management structures of the future, nor in terms of the fundamental adulteration of the
education process that might result from putting a financial transaction at the heart of the lecturerstudent relationship.
Conclusion
The approach to CDA I have presented above (and in Fairclough & Fairclough 2012) views analysis of
action and genres as having primacy over analysis of representations and discourses.
Representations (e.g. of proposed reform as an attack on young people) are critically significant
insofar as they support particular lines of action, by entering (as constituents of premises) in agents
arguments about what to do. The agency-structure dialectic manifests itself in the way discourses
provide agents with particular reasons for action (beliefs, goals, values).
The analysis has shown how a particular policy proposal was defended and challenged in a
dialectical process of critical questioning designed to lead to decision and action. In particular, it has
shown how various rhetorically effective representations of what the proposal would allegedly
amount to were used in arguments designed to support or refute it, as part of the deliberating
age ts pla of action. In so doing, the analysis has tried to illustrate how normative critique (both
by participants and by analysts as critics) can proceed in a systematic manner, while also indicating
that not all the possibilities for questioning that are in principle available were used effectively, at
least not on this particular occasion.
Given the actual balance of political forces in Parliament, it is impossible to know whether
the outcome would have been different, if deliberation had been more extended. It is a fact that
MPs usually vote according to the party whip. However, this is not the result of some nonoverridable institutional fact: it is possible for MPs to e el or to def the hip , without losing
their MP status. In the tuition fees debate, 21 Liberal-Democrats and 6 Conservatives voted against
the motion (with three resigning from ministerial positions in order to do so), which reduced the
go e
e t s Commons majority from 83 to 21. There were finally 323 votes in favour and 302
11
against (BBC 2009). The increase in fees was therefore not a foregone conclusion, and the attempts
to argumentatively direct the outcome in another direction were not by definition futile. In studying
argumentation in institutional contexts, what agents may be disinclined or unwilling to do must not
be confused with what is institutionally disallowed or impossible, in virtue of whatever (desireindependent, extrinsic) deontic constraints on decision-making might operate (i.e. obligations arising
from regulative or constitutive rules).
The conclusions of normative critique can open the way for explanatory critique of why, in
this case, the debate failed to properly address a number of relevant issues (e.g. why it failed to
imagine the consequences of p i atisatio beyond the impact on social mobility), or why the critical
challenges were not more effective in changing the outcome o edi e ti g the de ate to the eal
issues . Some of these causes may be addressed in terms of ideology and power, for example in
terms of the existence of a broad cross-pa t eoli e al o se sus o e the te s of de ate
u i e sities as usi esses , stude ts as usto e s a d of a go e
e t ajo it i Pa lia e t,
but also in terms of institutional, procedural constraints (e.g. on what can be subject for debate and
hat a t, gi e a spe ifi
otio ). It has also ee suggested that the De e e
s ap ote
as a ta ti al ea s to u tail de ate oth inside and outside Pa lia e t M Gettigan 2013: 5-6),
part of a deliberate and illegitimate strategy to prevent extensive discussion. Explanatory critique of
why this particular debate was in many ways limited and inefficient would thus be articulated with
normative critique of deliberation.
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Notes
1
In spite of the scarcity of journal articles in CDA, there are several edited volumes and monograph chapters
that focus on deliberative activity types: Chilton (2004), Reisigl & Wodak (2001), Wodak (2009), van Dijk and
Wodak (2000). Outside CDA, Ilie (2003) has developed a pragma-rhetorical approach to parliamentary
discourse. A pragmatic perspective underlies a few edited volumes: Bayley (2004), Ilie (2010) and a special
issue of Journal of Pragmatics (Ilie 2010) on parliamentary debate. Over the last decades, the main theoretical
contributions to the linguistic study of deliberation have come from argumentation theory. Pragmadialecticians have focused on the way in which argumentation in deliberative activity types is shaped by
institutional p e o ditio s o e t i si o st ai ts – see van Eemeren (2010), van Eemeren & Garssen (2010)
and a special issue of the Journal of Argumentation in Context, edited by Lewinski and Mohammed (2013),
including Garssen (2013) and Mohammed (2013). Several deliberative activity types have been investigated to
date: P i e Mi iste s Questio Ti e Moha
ed
, pa lia e ta de ate Ih e Jo
, politi al
interviews (Andone 2013).
2
Underlying this discussion is a (fallibilist) critical notion of reasonableness or rational acceptability. A
standpoint is (tentatively) acceptable if it withstands the most testing criticism directed against it in light of all
the knowledge available to the critics.
3
Testing typically begins with CQ4, unless there are reasons to challenge the (presupposed) acceptability of
the premises.
4
E.g., the p o le
5
These include the goals and other intended (e.g. planned) impacts.
a da
o st ai ts a e as stated, the age t is apa le of pe fo
i g the a tio , et .
6
Hansard, 9 December 2010, Column 540 -629, at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101209/debtext/101209-0002.htm.
7
I have used Antconc (Anthony 2014), a corpus analysis toolkit for concordancing and text analysis.
8
According to the Complete University Guide, at http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/.
14