The Wall Street Journal on the new EU presidency:
Meantime, three right-of-center leaders, from Denmark, Finland and Ireland, issued a statement saying the president should be a “chairman not a chief”—a description that appears to fit other prospective candidates better than Mr. Blair.
I’m moderately certain that the phrase in question has its origins in Brian Farrell’s[1] famous (at least among Irish political scientists) book on the role of the Irish Taoiseach. And my strong impression is that it appears to be circulating among EU decision makers. Political scientists are not usually noted for their adroitness in turning phrases that gain general circulation – what other examples are there? NB that I am less interested here in social scientific concepts such as ‘social capital’ that gain currency while remaining linked to their social scientific origins, and more interested in phrases (such as Veblen’s ‘conspicuous consumption’) that become detached from the more general theories that they sprang from.
1. No relation of mine.
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Three days ago, Valerie Jarrett claimed that the Obama administration was simply “speaking truth to power” in its bias clams against Fox News. I first came across the phrase “speak truth to power” in the title of Aaron Wildavsky’s 1979 book. It always struck me as a powerful and evocative phrase, and I suspected that it must have some biblical origin — sort of and almost. It originated, as I understand, in a publication from the American Friends Service Committee in the 1950s echoing a Quaker assertion of the eighteenth century. I’d like to claim Aaron as its originator, but he was, at best,a propagator. Nevertheless, he may well have popularized a very powerful and useful political phrase.
Edward Corwin was a master of them. He coined the term “judicial review.” Referred to 1937 as a “constitutional revolution.” Referred to separation of powers as an “invitation to struggle.” I think there are others. He might have originated the “switch in time,” but I’ve forgotten if that one was his.
And who actually coined the term “realignment.” Was it Key? or Burnham? I’ve forgotten, and I’m too lazy to look it up at the moment, but that’s certainly passed into the quasi-popular lexicon.
I was quite surprised when I heard that “unintended consequences” was coined by Robert Merton. He’s a sociologist though.
I think once you’re POTUS, it is no longer possible to speak truth to power unless you talk to yourself.
Was political science’s “soft power” overpowered by Viagra? Let’s think about it for, say, four (4) hours.
Roughly a decade before Wildavsky’s 1979 book, Hans Morgenthau wrote about speaking truth to power in the introduction to his collection of essays Truth and Power (1970). I will put up the relevant quote at my blog.
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