Emotional Governance

This lucid and original work argues for a new style of political leadership, one which pays deliberate and sophisticated attention to the emotional dynamics of the public.

This lucid and original work argues for a new style of political leadership, one which pays deliberate and sophisticated attention to the emotional dynamics of the public. In exploring this basic idea of ’emotional governance’, Barry Richards also examines the often unhelpful contributions of the news media to the ’emotional public sphere’. A case study of terrorism, as a highly emotional topic and as a key political issue in many liberal democracies, grounds the book’s ideas in today’s political landscape.

BARRY RICHARDS is Professor of Public Communication and Head of Research in the Media School at Bournemouth University, UK. He was formerly Professor and Head of the Department of Human Relations at the University of East London. He has written extensively on psychosocial dimensions of politics and popular culture.

Introduction * PART 1: A DEMOCRACY OF FEELINGS * The Public Mind in the Age of Suspicion * The Rise of Therapeutic Culture * Politics and Passion * Global Feelings * PART 2: THE BIAS AGAINST HOPE * Rottweilers Savage Democracy * Journalism as Emotional Labour * Challenging the Media Bias * PART 3: THE SEARCH FOR CONNECTION * Politics and Popularity * New Leaders: Containment and Reparation * Identification and Restyling * PART 4: TERROR IN THE PUBLIC MIND * The Political Importance of the Fear of Terrorism * The Four Factors of Fear * The Binary Discourse of Terrorism * PART 5: REPAIRING LEADERSHIP * Market Failures * The Damaged Leader