Equivocation and the Rhetoric of Modernization

Abstract

The process of change in the British Labour Party (from 1983 to 1997) has been widely referred to as one of modernization. In this article, the rhetoric of modernization was examined in the context of Bavelas et al.’s theory of equivocation (as modified by Bull et al.). Five televised political interviews with Tony Blair from the 1997 General Election campaign were analyzed. Blair equivocated to questions about modernization, which created an avoidance-avoidance conflict, and replied to those that did not create such a conflict (phi = .87, p < .001). It was argued that this rhetoric of modernization can be seen not only as a form of equivocation but also to have distinct political advantages by promoting a highly inclusive social identity for New Labour. It is concluded that such strategic advantages of equivocation are not adequately represented in existing theory.