Thatcher Reagan

Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey and Edward Yager
The rhetoric of presidents and prime

ministers: a textual analysis of Ronald
Reagans and Margaret Thatchers speeches
Working paper
Original citation:
Schonhardt-Bailey, Cheryl and Yager, Edward (2009) The rhetoric of presidents and prime
ministers: a textual analysis of Ronald Reagans and Margaret Thatchers speeches. London
School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/39086/
Originally available from the Authors website
Available in LSE Research Online: October 2011
2009 The Author
LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the
School. Copyright and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual
authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any
article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research.
You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities
or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE
The Rhetoric of Presidents and Prime Ministers: A Textual Analysis of Ronald Reagans and Margaret Thatchers Speeches, 6/19/2009, 1 of
38
The Rhetoric of Presidents and Prime Ministers: A Textual Analysis of
Ronald Reagans and Margaret Thatchers Speeches
Abstract:
The close personal relationship between President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
helped to facilitate the conservative revolution in both the US and UK. We measure systematically the
beliefs, the policy objectives and the rhetorical leadership of Reagan and Thatcher in order better to
understand where their priorities converged and where they deviated. Our approach is unique in that we
use textual analysis software: (a) to weight statistically the priorities of each leader; and by using three
dimensional moving graphics, (b) to capture the multidimensionality of presidential and prime ministerial
rhetoric. While our findings measure more precisely the areas of convergence, we also gauge
(statistically and spatially) the large gap between the two leaders with respect to the importance of
religion and spiritual inspiration in rhetorical leadership. Finally, we identify three important substantive
dimensions along which the seminal speeches of the two leaders may be mapped spatially.
Word Count: 10,734

38
She's the best man in England.
Ronald Reagans depiction of Margaret Thatcher
[He was] one of my closest political and dearest personal friends.
Margaret Thatcher, mourning the death of Ronald Reagan
I. INTRODUCTION
The close personal relationship between President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher helped to facilitate the conservative revolution in both the US and UK (Hames 1994; Abbott
1997; O'Sullivan 2006). The conservatism of the 1980s continues to influence the decisions of American
and British political leaders, both as a template to emulate (Johnston 2009 (3 May)) and one to avoid
(Bunch 2009). But, it was the unity of purpose which defined both countries under these two leaders,
with some observers even ranking the connection between the two leaders as closer than any previous
one between a U.S. president and a British prime minister (Sykes 2000: 117). While Reagans laid back
and relaxed personality contrasted sharply with Thatchers intensity and bossiness (O'Sullivan 2006:
299), the two leaders converged in their political philosophy and policy priorities, and to some degree in
their leadership styles. And yet, this depiction of the two leaders also masks important differences, such
as Reagans tendency to invoke inspirational and religious themes, not to mention the inherent
constraints imposed upon the two leaders by their respective political systems. The intent of this paper is
to measure systematically the beliefs, the policy objectives and the rhetorical leadership of the two
leaders in order better to understand where their priorities converged and where they deviated. Our
approach is unique in that we use textual analysis software: (a) to weight statistically the priorities of
each leader; and by using three dimensional moving graphics, (b) to capture the multidimensionality of
presidential and prime ministerial rhetoric. Building upon recent applications of text analysis software to
study political speeches (Laver, Benoit et al. 2003; Schonhardt-Bailey 2005; Schonhardt-Bailey 2006;
38
Airoldi, Feinberg et al. 2007; Klebanov, Diermeier et al. 2008; Monroe, Colaresi et al. 2008; Schonhardt-
Bailey 2008; Proksch and Slapin forthcoming), we illustrate the value of such methods not only in
capturing systematically the thematic content of political rhetoric, but also in mapping spatially its
underlying dimensionality.
While authors have applied traditional or automated content analysis to study the speeches of
Reagan or Thatcher (Bimes 2003; Crichlow 2006; Airoldi, Feinberg et al. 2007; Klebanov, Diermeier et
al. 2008), no previous study has sought to systematically compare and contrast the rhetoric of both
leaders. Moreover, previous studies of the speeches of each leader have tended to focus on a single
speech, a single interview, or a specific set of speechessuch as those given at a party conference or a
series of radio addresses (e.g., (Fairclough 2003; Charteris-Black 2005; Airoldi, Feinberg et al. 2007;
Klebanov, Diermeier et al. 2008). These micro-level textual analyses are well suited for examining the
specific linguistic characteristics employed by a speaker (e.g., the use of metaphor or typical vocabulary),
but are less well suited to capture the overarching themes espoused by a political leader at numerous
times and at different venues.
In contrast, our approach captures the thematic priorities of Reagan and Thatcher by examining
both leaders collection of seminal speeches. We observe that the priorities of Thatcher and Reagan
converged in terms of their core philosophy and the partisan camaraderie, in limiting the scope of
government and containing the Soviet nuclear threatall of which fits with the view that the two leaders
converged on a single conservative revolution. We also measure exactly where the two leaders priorities
differed. Thatcher prioritized the reform of public services and devoted little or no rhetorical effort to
inspirational or religious themes. Reagan, in contrast, devoted well over half 1 of the rhetorical language
in his seminal speeches to inspiring Americans to believe in themselves and more broadly, to pursue
Americas divine mission in the world. Finally, we identify three important substantive dimensions along
which the seminal speeches of the two leaders may be mapped spatially.
Section II provides a brief overview of the literature on the conservative revolution associated
38
with the two leaders; section III explains our data and methodology; section IV presents our results; and
section V discusses our results in broader context and concludes.
II. THE MEETING OF MINDS
a. Political Philosophy and Policy
The conservative revolution associated with the Reagan and Thatcher years is often conflated
into a single phenomenon, while minor disagreements are overlooked. The single focus of the two
leaders stems in part from their own assessments of each other. For example, upon meeting Reagan for
the first time as Leader of the Opposition Thatcher remarked that, above all, I knew that I was talking
to someone who instinctively felt and thought as I did; not just about policies but about a philosophy of
government, a view of human nature, all the high ideals and values which lie--or ought to lie--beneath
any politicians ambition to lead his country (Thatcher 1993: 157). In their roles as prime minister and
president, their ideological compatibility became even more conspicuous as they agreed on a wide array
of policy issues, including (1) tax reduction; (2) privatization and deregulation; (3) weaker unions; (4)
scaling back government bureaucracy; (5) the primacy of monetary policy to control inflation; (6)
increased defense spending; and (7) more aggressive use of foreign policy to enhance national prestige
and promote free market principles abroad (Krieger 1986; Adonis and Hames 1994; Pierson 1994;
Savoie 1994; Sykes 2000: 115; O'Sullivan 2006: 138).
In spite of their like-minded approach to public policy, notable differences were nonetheless
evident. For instance, (1) Thatcherism is sometimes characterized as being more specifically economic
than Reaganism (Riddell 1994: 22); (2) on fiscal policy, Reagan preferred tax cuts, while Thatcher
focused on spending cuts 2 (Thatcher 1993: 158, 165) (Roy and Denzau 2004); and (3) on foreign and
defense policy, Thatcher opposed both the U.S. invasion of Grenada (Thatcher 1993: 328-331) and the
Strategic Defense Initiative (Thatcher 1993: 463-468).

38
b. Conviction and Inspiration
Not only did Thatcher and Reagan share a conservative political philosophy and agreement on
most major policy positions, they also shared a style often described as conviction leadership. For
example, on the verge of becoming Prime Minister, Thatcher reminded her voters that if youve got a
message, preach it. I am a conviction politician. The Old Testament prophets didnt merely say:
Brothers, I want consensus. They said: This is my faith and vision. This is what I passionately believe.
If you believe it too, then come with me (Thatcher 1995: 448). For her, a partisan clash of opposing
ideologies was essential to the effective functioning of democracy. The pursuit of consensus, therefore,
was fundamentally subversive of popular choice (Thatcher 1995: 149).
In a parallel vein, Reagans early political speeches on the General Electric circuit and elsewhere
provide evidence of his conviction style (Yager 2006). Perhaps one of his most memorable conviction
speeches was A Time for Choosing on behalf of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential campaigna
speech that both enhanced Reagans subsequent campaign for the governorship of California and
catapulted him into national prominence. His convictions about the role of government in American
society were sustained through his 1966-74 governorship and his 1980-88 presidency. As Reagan himself
later commented, Id come to Washington to put into practice ideas I had believed in for decades
(Reagan 1990: 287).
As conviction leaders, Thatcher and Reagan sought to (1) advance their public philosophy and
political principles rather than forge consensus; (2) lead public opinion rather than follow it; and (3)
invoke rhetoric in their populist approaches, relying heavily upon the media to curry public opinion
(Sykes 2000: 254-255). Yet, the means by which Thatcher and Reagan arrived at this type of leadership
varied considerably: Thatcher led with control, engagement, and knowledge on both foreign and
domestic policy issues, while Reagan preferred to delegate whenever possible and was palpably deficient
in knowledge on a host of policy matters (Ionescu 1991: 167). He preferred the big picture, while she
was fully engaged in the detail of government operations. Thatcher herself noted this contrast but
38
attributed it more to institutional differences than to personal ones: It was easy for lesser men to
underrate Ronald Reagan, as many of his opponents had done in the past. His style of work and decision
making was apparently detached and broad-brush--very different from my own. This was in part the
result of our two very different systems of government rather than differences of temperament (Thatcher
1993: 157). In sum, as leaders, while they shared a commitment to pursuing their beliefs over achieving
consensus, Reagan deployed this with a lighter touch than Thatchera difference which may have arisen
from personality, from differences in political systems, or more likely, from a combination of the two.
A more substantial contrast in their approaches to conviction leadership is the way in which
Reagan invoked inspirational themes to negate an era of self-doubt among Americans, or in his own
words, What Id really like to do is go down in history as the President who made Americans believe in
themselves again (quoted in (Little 1988: 147)). Reagan balanced his commitment to conservative
political philosophy with his religious view of Americaand in the view of some scholars, the latter held
greater sway:
[While he favored] (i)ndividualism, small government, lower taxes, a balanced budget, [limiting]
communist expansionism, security through strength, etc., . . . vaguer but still powerful themes
count(ed) more with him, above all Americas divine mission, its uniqueness, the supremacy of
heroism both in American history and in human achievement, and the power of dreams,
practical dreams, as Reagan call(ed) them. (Little 1988: 143)
Reagans use of inspirational and religious rhetoricwhich sought to unify and build consensus
among Americansappears at first to be at odds with his conviction leadership style. He managed,
however, to balance the two by aligning the more consensual and inspirational rhetoric with his role as
head of state, and the more overtly political/ideological rhetoric with his role as Republican party leader.
He tended to adopt more inspirational and religious rhetoric in his speeches before national audiences
e.g., in inaugural addresses and state of the union messagesand more antagonistic and ideological
rhetoric for use in minor and campaign addresses with narrower audiences. While this rhetorical
38
specialization strategy has been used by most twentieth-century American presidents, Reagan was a
particularly effective practitioner in projecting his chief of state role for national audiences while
adopting a more political, prime ministerial role for narrower audiences (Bimes 2003: 74).
As prime minister, Thatcher infrequently invoked religious imagery in her speeches to the British
people, and on the rare occasion when she did (e.g., arguing for Christian principles in economic policy
before leaders of the Church of Scotland (Thatcher 1988)), the effect was to provoke controversy rather
than to engender agreement (1988). 3 While her Methodist faith may well have shaped her political views
(Smith 2007), her speeches exhibit comparatively less explicitly religious rhetoric than Reagans. One
scholar notes that,
. . . the nearest [Thatcher] came to a declaration of her faith was when she told her friend Sir
Laurens van der Post that the values of a free society like ours come from religion. They do not
come from the state. . . . Yet the fact that in her political rhetoric religious themes seldom appear
and are often colored by a distinct touch of utilitarianism seems rather to indicate that, in her
case, as in that of modern English culture as a whole, personal religious beliefs are buried deep
inside, one could almost say privatized (if that were not a very bad pun) (Ionescu 1991: 163).
As Ionescus bad pun implies, what appears to be a significant difference in rhetorical
leadership styles between Thatcher and Reagan may actually reflect more the differences in each nations
historical traditions, with American presidents embracing religious beliefs and values in their rhetoric
and British leaders more often distancing themselves from overt religiosity:
[P]residents have used narrative to tell a national story, invoke national ideals, and state crucial
choices. Abraham Lincoln did this at Gettysburg and in his second inaugural address. His
language was biblical in its prophetic tone. He told Americans that they are a people with a
higher calling and asked them to resume their fundamental national identity. Twentieth-century
presidents have continually reminded the nation of its early covenant and purpose. It is
inconceivable that a Canadian or a British prime minister would lead with such language.
38
(Hargrove 1998: 51)
And, more recently, the Sunday Times notes that the decline of British Christianity has created an
important political difference between us and the US. . . . . The biblical imagery that is such a lively
presence in the American political speech has dropped out of our culture and has not been replaced by
any equivalent source of poetic power (Williams 2009 ).
Our purpose in this paper is not to explore the divergent histories of religiosity in each country
(some of which might be attributed to large rural communities in the US where religious appeals are
welcomed). Rather our empirical analysis allows us to quantify the contrast in usage of religious imagery
by the two leaders and to weight this relative to their other philosophical and policy goals.
From this brief overview, it is clear that the two leaders agreed upon core conservative policy
objectives (e.g, privatization and deregulation; reforming government bureaucracy, and so on)with just
a few disagreements (tax cuts versus spending cuts, invasion of Grenada, SDI). Thatcher and Reagan
were also both conviction leadersseeking to advance their political philosophy rather than forge
consensusalthough Reagans inspirational rhetoric softened his conviction leadership style by lending
it a more unifying flavor. While these observations may be reasonably accurate, they are undeniably
vague generalizations to which it is nearly impossible to assign empirical weights or employ empirical
analysis of any sort. We might attempt to tease out where the two leaders aligned and divided in a more
abstract dimensional space, but such an attempt would be mere conjecture. Rather, a more systematic
method is required to analyze the political beliefs and priorities of the two leaders.
III. DATA AND METHODOLOGY
a. Data
Our intent is to gauge each leaders highest national priorities. Because scholars in presidential
rhetoric and communication agree that the two leaders were most likely to articulate their primary and
core beliefs in their seminal speeches, 4 we therefore focus on these speeches. 5

38
While we anticipate that our analysis will capture both the overlap in political philosophy and
policy objectives of each leader, as well as areas of difference or disagreement in their beliefs, we have
no a priori expectations concerning either the empirical weights of the thematic content of the two
leaders seminal speeches or the underlying dimensions upon which the two leaders might divide. We do,
however, contend that a distinct pattern of association between each leader and his/her core beliefs
should emerge. We maintain that different themes of rhetoric that use different vocabulary will result in
an observed word distribution that deviates systematically from one where the words are independent of
each other. Hence, we infer conditional independence of the structure of words and the rhetoric of each
leader for a given theme; patterns which deviate significantly should lend insight into distinct beliefs of
each leader.
Our data are drawn from the websites of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation
(www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/) and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
(www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches). Thatchers speeches are from her time as prime minister
(May 1979 to November 1990). The Foundation website posts 137 key public statements during this
period and designates them as seminal, major, minor and trivial. Our sample consists of the 38 which the
Foundation classifies as seminal. 6
Similarly, Reagans seminal speeches are selected from his time as president (January 1981 to
January 1989). The Reagan Library website posts a total of 94 "major" speeches during the Reagan
presidency but does not distinguish the seminal ones. However, of the 94, ten are considered Reagans
most important speeches to the nation 7 and, though fewer than Thatchers most important addresses, the
speeches are roughly equivalent to Thatchers seminal addresses in articulating national priorities. The
one glaring exception is that, in contrast to the British system in which annual political party conferences
constitute a key venue for the party leader/prime minister to articulate his or her political philosophy and
beliefs, Reagans collection of speeches lack an annual event of such caliber since American political
parties do not hold annual national conferences. Hence, to balance the Thatcher speeches to the
The Rhetoric of Presidents and Prime Ministers: A Textual Analysis of Ronald Reagans and Margaret Thatchers Speeches, 6/19/2009, 10
of 38
Conservative Party Conference, we add to the sample Reagans eight annual keynote speeches (1981-88)
to the Conservative Political Action Conference. 8
We structure the data into three text filesthe larger sample of speeches for both leaders, and
one file each for the speeches of Reagan-only and Thatcher-only. The focus of our analysis, however, is
the combined seminal speeches of both leaders. The text files are structured so each speech by either
Reagan or Thatcher constitutes a case, and each is identified (or tagged) with identifying
characteristics--the name of the leader, the nature and date of the speech. For Reagan, the nature of the
speech is classified as Inaugural, State of the Union, Republican Party (CPAC), and Farewell. For
Thatcher, the speech classification is Conservative Party Conference (both English and Scottish), Lord
Mayors Banquet, and House of Commons. We designate the nature of the speech in order to ascertain
the extent to which the two leaders employed different themes or lines of argument to different types of
national audiences.
b. Methodology
Automated content analysis of political texts has captured the attention of political scientists,
with researchers seeking to measure empirically the policy positions from political party
manifestos and legislative speeches (Gabel and Huber 2000; Laver and Garry 2000; Laver and
Benoit 2002; Laver, Benoit et al. 2002; Albright 2007; Benoit and Mikhailov 2007; Slapin and
Proksch 2007), the dynamics of issue-evolution in Congress (Monroe, Colaresi et al. 2008),
political culture (Garson 2002), and to classify or extract meaning from political texts more
generally (Hillard, Purpura et al. 2007; Hopkins and King 2007; Klebanov, Diermeier et al. 2008).
A variety of packages are on offer for automated content analysis, each providing its own array of
analytical tools and insights into textual data. 9 Some packages appear well-suited to analyze very large
corpora encompassing multiple topics, but usually these require a pre-coded or pre-scaled reference
document from which fixed parameters (Lowe 2008) may be derived and employed on other
documents (or the larger population of documents) to scale, code and/or classify these documents (Laver,
of 38
Benoit et al. 2003; Hopkins and King 2007). Other approaches employ machine-learning in order to
mitigate the costs of human labeling, although they recognize that human intervention to monitor and
guide the analysis cannot be avoided (Hillard, Purpura et al. 2007). Alceste, the approach used here and
elsewhere in the social sciences, 10 does not require any pre-coding but is more limited in that it cannot
analyze very large corpora 11 nor corpora containing multiple discrete topics. Its chief advantage for
speeches is that it allows the researcher to analyze statistically and spatially the intersection of
characteristics of the speakers with the tendency of those speakers to develop and focus on particular
themes or arguments. A more detailed description of the Alceste method is given in our appendix.
We employ three robustness checks on our results from Alceste: first, we analyze each set of
Reagans and Thatchers speeches separately; second, we increase the sample size of Reagans speeches
to equate to that of Thatchers; and third, we repeat the analysis of the main corpus using another textual
analysis software (T-Lab). We report these results below and for the comparison with T-Lab, provide
further details in the appendix.
[Table 1 about here]
IV. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
a. Identifying the Themes
Table 1 provides summaries of the basic statistics from Alceste for the three corpora. The total
word count for the seminal speeches of both leaders (column a) is 226,282, and of these 95,026 were
unique words that were analyzed by the program. 12 From the word counts for each leader alone (columns
b and c) we can see that the length of Thatchers total seminal speeches is about twice that of Reagans.
As this imbalance in favor of Thatcher invariably overestimates her contribution to the combined set of
speeches, we take measures to address this problem (described below).
In each file, the passive variables 13 (or tagged indicators) define characteristics of each speech or
case, and these include the leaders name, the nature and date of the speech. Our key tag is, of course,
the leaders name since it allows us to link each theme with either Reagan or Thatcher, using 2
of 38
statistical significance.
The Initial Context Unit, or ICU, is essentially the sampling uniti.e., a pre-existing division
of the text and is specified by the user. We have referred to ICUs as cases, or the speeches of the leaders,
and we can see that there were 56 seminal speeches by both leaders during their terms in office. The
Elementary Context Unit, or ECU, is a gauged sentence, which the program automatically constructs
based upon word length and punctuation in the text. 14 Using the presence or absence of words in each
ECU, the program calculates matrices on which to build the classification process. The program conducts
two preliminary analyses, each using slightly different lengths for the contextual unit. 15 It then opts for
the length that allows the greater proportion of ECUs to be successfully classified relative to the total
available, thereby approximating a measure of goodness-of-fit. From Table 1 we can see that 4557 ECUs
were classified, equating to 84% of the ECUs for the combined set of speeches.
The bottom two rows in Table 1 indicate the number of classes identified and the size of each
class (as measured by the percentage of the total ECUs classified within each). In total, six classes are
identified for the combined speeches, four for Reagan-only speeches and six for Thatcher-only
speechesand for the moment, we take the labels of all the classes at face value. We do, however, want
to gauge the extent to which the themes associated with each leader in the combined file are robust. One
way to gauge robustness is to compare the thematic classes in the combined file with those in the
Reagan-only and Thatcher-only files: classes that emerge unambiguously in both the combined and
leader-specific files may be judged to be reasonably robust.
From our analysis of the Reagan-only and Thatcher-only files, we find that each leader is
strongly associated with one distinct theme in both the combined and leader-specific files. Reagan is
closely associated with Civil Religion and this class accounts for the largest percentage of classified
ECUs in both the combined and separate files (30% in the combined speeches and 59% in the Reagan-
only speeches).
In Thatchers speeches we find the distinct theme of Public Services Reform, which accounts for
of 38
about 16% of the classified ECUs in the combined file and 20% in the Thatcher-only file. Both leaders
devote considerable rhetorical effort to reining in Big Government/Fiscal Policy, improving Domestic
Economic Growth, and curtailing the Soviet Threat. One theme that arises in the Thatcher-alone file
relates to parliamentary rhetoric and debating style of the House of Commons. It is not a class that
reflects policy or ideological substance and so will not be considered further in this paper. 16
To test the robustness of our Reagan-only set of seminal speeches vis--vis Thatchers
equivalentbut largerset of seminal speeches, we analyze a sample of Reagans speeches for which
the word count roughly equates to that of Thatchers speeches. Our results for the larger sample are
consistent with those for his seminal speeches. 17 Thus, we contend that the content of our two sets of
seminal speeches is an appropriate measure of each leaders national priorities, and so these comprise our
final merged corpora of speeches. Nonetheless, Thatchers larger word count invariably creates a bias in
the analysis, although not one that significantly affects our conclusions (as we discuss below).
i. Themes in the Combined Speeches of Reagan and Thatcher
While the above class labels may seem straightforward, it is important to clarify that these are
not automatically given by the program. The output provides the researcher with a number of different
tools for conceptualizing the content of classes. Of the many tools, two are particularly useful
characteristic words and characteristic ECUs. 18 The most characteristic meaningful words 19 for each
class, along with their 2 statistical significance 20 (with the minimum 2 value for selection set at 15.2 for
this analysis, with one df 21 ), provide an indication of the theme or frame of argument that unifies a class.
The most characteristic words for each class are those with the highest 2 values. Words ending with +
indicate that these are reduced forms (e.g., president+ may refer to president, presidential, and
presidents).
[Figure 1 about here]
Figure 1 presents the most representative words and phrases (ECUs) for each of the six classes in
the combined speeches. On the left, the top characteristic word (by 2 value) is given at the base, and
of 38
words that tend to be used in close association with this top characteristic word are drawn as spokes, with
distance from the top word reflecting greater or lesser association with that word. For instance, for Class
1, rate is the most characteristic word (with 2 value of 507, 1 df); words closely linked to this include
tax or taxes, inflation and spend. On the right, we list three characteristic ECUs for each class--
each preceded with its 2 value with 1 df. Within each of these, characteristic words for that class are
prefaced with a # sign. For Class 1, the characteristic words and phrases all emphasize lessening
government spending and the related implications for the federal budget: we thus label the class Big
Government / Fiscal Policy.
The name tags may also obtain statistical significance for thematic classes, as measured by their
2 value (with 1 df): over 3.84 for 10%; over 6.63 for 5%; and over 10.8 for 1%. Only the Reagan tag is
statistically significant for this class (2 value = 22), along the State of the Union tag, meaning that this
theme resonated predominantly in Reagans seminal State of the Union addresses.
Following this same mode of interpretation, Class 2 focuses on industrial output (with the 2
value for industrial+ equalling 71, and 470 for industry/industries), jobs, investment and economic
competition. The top ECUs for this class are indicative of Thatchers attempt to turn around the British
economy: her goal was to improve opportunities for trade and investment, create new jobs (and lessen the
powers of the unions), and strengthen the infrastructure. While only Thatchers tag is significant for this
class (2 = 169, and House of Commons venue 2 = 77), we can see from the Reagan-only sample in
Table 1 that he too focused on enhancing Domestic Economic Growth (although to a lesser extent
[weight = 8.7%] than Thatcher in her speeches [weight = 17.9%]). Once Reagans speeches are joined
with the much larger set by Thatcher, this appears to swamp the association with Reagan. As with
quantitative data, there is no easy answer to the problem of missing data (i.e., Reagan simply gave fewer
speeches while in office than did Thatcher); and in this case, the consequence is a less robust
classification of Reagans speeches vis--vis those of Thatcher, but only when the content overlaps as in
of 38
this case. When the content of Reagans speeches is unique from those of Thatchers (e.g., civil religion,
public service reform), the imbalance in textual data does not appear to affect the results for Reagan.
The characteristic words for Class 3 convey concerns of the West for Soviet nuclear weapons
and the defense of Europe, thus prompting the label Soviet Threat. This class is associated with
Thatchers tag (2 = 21, and the Lord Mayors venue, 2 = 75) but not Reagans tag. Once again, when
the two sets of speeches are combined, Thatchers larger textual data captures the statistical significance,
even though it is evident from Table 1 that Reagan prioritized this theme.
Class 4 captures the more political-ideological rhetoric of the two leaders. Neither leaders tag
dominates the class, but the two partisan conference tags for both leaders are strongly associated with this
class (Conservative party, 2= 30, Conservative Political Action, 2 = 48). Thus, the rhetoric of this class
is targeted at national audiences of the respective parties and is therefore more politically partisan than
the other themes. In short, this class reflects a more generic pro-conservative stance and is thus labelled,
Conservatism.
Classes 5 and 6 are distinct to each leader. The characteristic words for Class 5 actually convey
little of the substance of the class, and more of the parliamentary rhetoric in which Thatcher introduced
legislation to reform employment legislation, particularly in relation to the coal industry and strikes, as
well as legislation seeking to liberalize educational services. Notably, the context for this class is the
larger public sector in Britain relative to the US. Thatchers legislative reforms sought to mitigate the
causes of the disruption in public services in 1978-79, which created the infamous winter of discontent.
For this class, the ECUs are more helpful in conveying the substance of the class. In the Thatcher-only
analysis, the HC Procedures emerges as a separate class but in the combined speeches its content appears
to merge with together with Public Services Reform (with Thatchers tag obtaining the large 2 value of
405, and the venue overwhelmingly the House of Commons, 2 = 1161). This results from the close
association between the parliamentary procedures rhetoric and the content of the legislation itself
content that is merged together when classified in a larger corpora together with Reagans speeches.
of 38
The unambiguous content of Class 6 is the role of religion, faith and freedom in American
society, and belongs to Reagan alone (2 = 615; with significant venues including Republican party
(CPAC) 2 = 212, State of Union 2 = 158, and Inaugural 2 = 64). Both the characteristic words and
phrases fit squarely with what several authors have titled Civil Religion (Albanese 1976; Bellah and
Hammond 1980; Hughey 1983; Dunn 1984)or, the collection of beliefs, values, rites, ceremonies,
and symbols which together give sacred meaning to the ongoing political life of the community and
provide it with an overarching sense of unity above and beyond all internal conflicts and differences
(Pierard and Linder 1988: 23). Historically, American presidents have invoked key elements of civil
religion to inspire and unite Americans, but some presidents have employed this rhetoric more than
others. While Reagan communicated American civil religion more than any other president in the
second half of the twentieth century, previous presidents (Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson) also
used such language to inspire and unite Americans.
Before examining the relationships between the classes, we conduct one further robustness check
on our thematic classification of the combined speeches of Reagan and Thatcher by employing a second
softwareT-Labwhich also allows automated content analysis of textual data and has some of the
tools available in Alceste. Space does not allow a full description of this software, though details and
published papers are available on-line (http://www.tlab.it/en/default.php). In brief, we find that when the
corpus is partitioned into six thematic groups (i.e., paralleling the six obtained in Alceste), the thematic
classification is similar to that obtained by Alceste, 22 though with some variation in the weighting of
some of the classes: (1) T-Lab assigns a greater weight to the Soviet Threat and in so doing, finds
significance for Reagan as well as Thatcher (thereby capturing some of Reagans rhetoric on ensuring
democratic freedoms in foreign policy); (2) T-Lab assigns a greater weight to Thatchers public service
reform, but in this class it also captures more of the parliamentary rhetoric associated with her legislative
reforms; and (3) Civil Religion is weighted 16% as opposed to Alcestes weight of 30%, and is more
closely linked to the rhetoric of American conservatism. We present a comparative graph of the two sets
of 38
of classification in our appendix (Graph 5); however, further investigation of the comparative merits of
these two software packages is beyond the scope of this paper. We do nonetheless note the possibility
that Alceste may over-estimate to some extent the weight of Civil Religion in Reagans rhetoric.
b. Linkages Between the Classes
We have, thus far, gained some understanding of the main themes in the seminal speeches,
finding that two themes in particularPublic Services Reform and Civil Religion are distinctly related to
Thatcher and Reagan, respectively. To a greater or lesser degree, both leaders converged on the themes
of Big Government, Domestic Economic Growth, Soviet Threat and Conservatism.
i. Tree Graph
Figure 2 is a tree graph of the thematic classes, schematized according to Alcestes descending
hierarchical classification procedure. The trees group the classes according to similarity in terms of
characteristic words and ECUs; the nearer to the bottom is the joining between the classes, the more
closely they are related (in terms of word and ECU similarity). We can see that the speeches contain two
basic thematic groups. The first (Classes 1, 2 and 5, totaling about 48% of the classified ECUs) contains
the common thread of Domestic Economic Policy, comprised of Reagans Big Government theme, and
Thatchers focus on Domestic Economic Growth and Public Services Reform.
The second thematic group revolves around Protecting Values and Security and contains
Reagans focus on Civil Religion (Class 6), along with both leaders rhetoric on Conservatism and party
politics (Class 4) and the Soviet nuclear threat (Class 3), and totals about 52% of the classified ECUs.
Of these three classes, civil religion and conservatism are more closely linked in terms of the overlap in
characteristic words and phrases, while the Soviet nuclear threat is less closely linked, very likely owing
to its foreign policy dimension.
ii. Correspondence Analysis

of 38
The results from Alcestes classification can also be presented graphically as a spatial
representation of the relations between the classes (Figures 3 and 4). 23 Here, distance reflects the degree
of association. 24 Correspondence analysis aims to account for a maximum amount of association 25 along
the first (horizontal) axis. The second (vertical) axis seeks to account for a maximum of the remaining
association, and so on. Hence, the total association is divided into components along principal axes. The
resulting map provides a means for transforming numerical information into pictorial form. It provides a
framework for the user to formulate her own interpretations, rather than providing clear-cut
conclusions. 26
Figure 3 presents a map of the correspondence analysis of the classes (in bold) and tags 27 for the
combined seminal speeches of Thatcher and Reagan. The first two factors together capture only about
52% of the variance which is explained (measured by total inertia, which in this case is 80%) in the
original correspondence table. 28 Hence, our initial observation is that a two-dimensional correspondence
space appears to miss almost half of the sources of variation.
From Figure 3 we can observe first that the horizontal axis mirrors the cleavage between the two
groupings of classes in the tree map (Domestic Economic Policy and Protecting Values and Security)
that is, the Domestic Economic Policy group of classes falls in the right-hand quadrant while the other
three fall in the left-hand quadrant. As a continuum, the horizontal dimension might range from more
political themes on the left and more economic themes on the right. Reagans tag falls on the side of
politics while Thatchers tag aligns more with economicswhich fits well with one of the noted
differences in philosophy, i.e., that Thatcherism is more specifically economic than Reaganism
(Riddell 1994: 22). In short, the primary horizontal dimension appears to be one of political values and
security versus economic policy.
The vertical axis, or second dimension, appears to distinguish the unique language of
international politics (Soviet Threat) from that of domestic politics and policy. The starkest juxtaposition
is with Reagans Civil Religion class, which bridges religious / inspirational values and American
of 38
society. As Civil Religion and Soviet Threat fall at the extremes of the vertical axis, this dimension
appears to differentiate most clearly the domestic and international aspects of themes relating to politics
rather than to economics.
A further feature of Figure 3 is that while the name tags of each leader are obviously constrained
to a single spatial location, the venues of the speeches allow insight into occasions during which each
leader placed a greater or lesser focus on particular themes. For instance, Reagan appears to have
highlighted Civil Religion in his inaugural and farewell addresses, as well as in his speeches to CPAC
audiences. Thatcher tended to focus more on domestic economic policy (i.e., much of it in the form of
legislative proposals) in her House of Commons speeches, and more on foreign policy (Soviet Threat)
during her speeches at the Lord Mayors Banquet at the Mansion House in London. As this Mansion
House speech is traditionally a forum for prime ministers to discuss British foreign policy, the statistical
significance of the Lord Mayors tag for this international theme might have been anticipated.
While Figure 3 provides some insight into the spatial relationships between the classes and tags,
and among the classes themselves, a two-dimensional representation of these data misses nearly half of
the variance which is explained in the original correspondence table, as noted above. Moreover, it may
seem puzzling that Thatchers tag is situated in close proximity to the Big Government tag for which
Reagans tag is statistically significant . While this is no doubt the result of the overlap between the two
leaders on this theme (as is seen from columns b and c, Table 1), its spatial location nonetheless seems
misplaced. These two features from Figure 3 lead us to investigate a third dimension.
We know that a third factor explains a further 20% of the variance (see fn 29); hence, an analysis
of the data in a three dimensional space offers us a way to capture 72% of the variance explained in the
original correspondence table. A moving, color graph of this 3-dimensional image 29 may be viewed on-
line [authors website]; however, for presentation here, we simplify this image in four rotating
snapshots (Figures 4a, b, c and d) in which the cell entries represent the clusters of the top most
representative words for each class. 30 (In addition, we present on-line a second moving graph of the
of 38
distribution of all the characteristic words, illustrated in moving balloons.) Figure 4a presents the 3-
dimensional space from the same angle or projection as the 2-dimensional correspondence graphthat
is, the first and second dimensions are visible and the third dimension is essentially flattened on that
plane. The second dimension is fixed in a vertical positionakin to a polearound which the first and
third dimensions rotate in spokes at 90 degree angles to obtain the remaining images (as illustrated in
the small maps in the top left of Figures a through d). Hence, in Figures 4b and 4d, the second and third
dimensions are situated on one plane and the first dimension is essentially flattened on top of that. Figure
4d provides, in our estimation, the clearest view of the third dimension since the classes that appear to
drive it fall to the very right and toward the front of the graph.
We find that one class in particular appears to pull the third dimension furthest outwardi.e.,
Public Services Reformwith Conservatism contributing to a somewhat lesser extent. Soviet Threat also
contributes, but as the distribution of its point cloud lies more at a 45 degree angle (as can be seen in the
moving image on-line), its influence is less direct. On the left side of the third dimension lie two distinct
classesCivil Religion and Big Governmentalthough their positions gravitate more towards the center.
The substantive interpretation of the third dimension appears to be the unique rhetoric of each
leaderi.e., the three classes that fall in the right-hand quadrants are statistically associated with
Thatcher and the two classes falling on the left are statistically associated with Reagan. And yet, the
picture is not quite as stark as that might suggest, since Reagans tag is also significant for the
Conservatism theme. Moreover, Soviet Threat is not so specific to Thatcher nor is Big Government
specific to Reagan, since both themes emerge for both leaders in the Reagan-only and Thatcher-only
speeches. 31 What we do glean from the third dimension, however, is a clearer picture of the particularly
unique rhetoric of each leaderi.e., Public Services Reform for Thatcher and Civil Religion for Reagan,
with the remaining classes containing varying amounts of overlap between the two leaders. We have also
managed to gain more insight into the spatial position of the Big Government theme. Whereas in the two
of 38
dimensional graph the center of this theme fell in close proximity to Thatchers Domestic Economic
Growth and Public Services Reform themes, in the three-dimensional version it is situated near Reagans
other theme, as one would expect on a spectrum which divides the distinct rhetoric of each leader.
Whereas the two-dimensional graph obscures this finding, adding one further dimension helps to clarify
where the language of the two leaders is more distinct.
Adding a third dimension to our analysis has allowed us a sharper way to visualize the themes on
which Thatcher and Reagan overlapped, as well as those where their substantive focus and use of
language was very different. Critics might argue that we could have summarized these findings from our
analysis of the statistically significant tags for each class, along with the distribution of classes according
to the tree mapand to some extent this is true. Yet we concur with Jacoby, who argues that a picture is
often worth a thousand words. Visual inspection of scaling results often allows researchers to discern
patterns in objects that would not necessarily be found through other methods (Jacoby 1991: 37)
Interpretations of higher dimensions admittedly provide a less parsimonious explanation for the variation
in the data, and create presentational difficulties for standard journal formats. However, we contend that
our three-dimensional analysis enables us to summarize more effectively the array of themes that each
leader prioritized, as well as Thatchers distinct bent towards reforming the British public services and
Reagans distinctly American theme of civil religion.
V. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION
Our results offer a more empirically rigorous and formal approach to the study of political
rhetoric, and particularly that of presidents and prime ministers. Whereas one might reasonably argue
that generalizations about Reagans and Thatchers beliefs and philosophies were well known by experts
and pundits alike, no one yet has sought to assess their robustness by gauging the empirical
underpinnings of these generalizations. Our analysis contributes three specific findings to the literature
on the conservative revolution of the 1980s, and specifically on the rhetoric of two key leaders of that
revolution.
of 38
First, our analysis of the seminal speeches of Reagan and Thatcher confirms a number of
generalizations about the like-mindedness of these two leaders. We find that both leaders converged,
albeit in varying degrees, on reining in the bureaucracy and spending of their national governments, on
improving the domestic economy, and on limiting the Soviet nuclear threat to the West. We also find that
both leaders touted the credentials of Conservatism as a political philosophyparticularly relative to
liberalism. But, in contrast to previous studies, our analysis offers empirical weights for each of these
themes, both within the speeches of the individual leaders and relative to one another, along with
statistical significance for the relevance of each theme to the respective leader.
Second, the more interesting and novel of our findings reveals differences between the two
leaders (again with empirical weights and statistical significance). While much is made in the literature
about Reagans and Thatchers conviction leadership style, very little is made of the striking difference in
the way these leaders appeared to pursue their convictions. Many American presidents have used civil
religion in their rhetoric to promote national unity (Pierard and Linder 1988; Heclo 2003), yet Reagans
seminal speeches suggest that he devoted a large share of his rhetorical energy to employing civil
religion to unite and inspire Americans. For Reagan, conviction appears to have been closely linked with
spiritual and inspirational ideas. For Thatcher, on the other hand, conviction reflected perhaps more a
determination to pursue more practical efforts to implement her legislative agenda. We find no evidence
in her seminal speeches of a similar, spiritual and inspirational rhetoric.
One might, of course, attribute this difference in rhetoric to differences in leadership roles in a
presidential versus parliamentary systems, or to deeper differences in U.S. versus U.K. politics and
society. The American president, not only as chief executive but also as head of state, is expected to be a
source of national unity, on the face of it more so than a prime ministerand perhaps as a consequence,
American political tradition has generally elevated the rhetoric of civil religion in political discourse.
Even so, Reagans focus on civil religionranking in our analysis as his predominant themeappears
extraordinary even among presidents (though one would require a larger systematic analysis of all U.S.
of 38
presidents to confirm this). Recent accolades to Reagan upon his passing suggest that the distinctive
theme of civil religion has contributed to his legacy as the Great Communicator. As Edward Kennedy
(D-Mass) noted on June 9, 2004 in his tribute to Reagan delivered in the United States Senate (2005:
242-243):
The true achievement of the Reagan revolution was the renewal of Americas faith in itself. It
was more than the fact that he was a superb communicator. Some attributed at least part of his
success to the fact that he had been an actor. But his deepest convictions were matters of heart
and mind and spirit, and on them, he was no actor at all.
Or, as Norm Coleman (R-Minn) stated in a similar tribute (2005: 234):
In the last few days, we are hearing a lot about Reagan as the Great Communicator. I think we
put too much emphasis on the craft. As far as Ronald Reagan was concerned, the key to being a
good communicator was having something to say. . . He understood the key to American
progress was our spirit. . .He knew we needed a sense of the heroic, a stirring of our souls to rise
above selfishness, division, and fear. He inspired us.
Our third finding stems from our spatial analysis of the thematic classes and tags of the two
leaders seminal speeches. We have identified three important substantive dimensions along which these
speeches may be arrayed. The first dimension places in juxtaposition themes relating to domestic
economic policy with more political ones relating to the protection of values and national security. Along
this dimension, Thatcher tended towards economics and Reagan towards politics. The second dimension
separates domestic themes and policies from international politics and policywith particular focus on
the Soviet nuclear threat. Both leaders prioritized the Soviet nuclear threat in their seminal speeches, but
on domestic policy, Reagan focused more on inspiring Americans and Thatcher focused more on fixing
specific areas of the British economy and services. Finally, our third dimension depicts the unique
rhetoric of each leader, and as such, is the clearest distinction between Reagans more inspirational focus
and Thatchers more practical, hands-on efforts to implement a legislative agenda focusing on reforming
of 38
the perceived deficiencies in British public services.

of 38
APPENDIX : DETAILS OF ALCESTE METHODOLOGY AND COMPARISON OF ALCESTE

AND T-LAB RESULTS
Alceste is textual analysis software that identifies a speakers association of ideas and main arguments
ideas and arguments which can then be correlated with characteristics of the speakers (e.g., name of
speaker, party affiliation, constituency characteristics and so on). The package relies upon co-occurrence
analysis, which is the statistical analysis of frequent word pairs in a text corpus. Alceste was developed
by Max Reinert (Reinert 1983; Reinert 1998; Reinert 2003) and has been applied in sociology,
psychology, and political science (Noel-Jorand, Reinert et al. 1995; Lahlou 1996; Noel-Jorand, Reinert et
al. 1997; Brugidou 1998; Guerin-Pace 1998; Bauer 2000; Brugidou 2003; Noel-Jorand, Reinert et al.
2004; Schonhardt-Bailey 2005; Schonhardt-Bailey 2006). It has been described as a methodology
insofar as it integrates a multitude of highly sophisticated statistical methods, (Kronberger and Wagner
2000: 306) and, (t)aken together, the program realizes a complex descending hierarchical classification
combining elements of different statistical methods like segmentation (Bertier and Bouroche 1975),
hierarchical classification and dichotomization based on reciprocal averaging or correspondence analysis
(Hayashi 1950; Benzecri 1981; Greenacre 1993) and the theory of dynamic clouds (Diday, Lemaire et al.
1982) (Kronberger and Wagner 2000: 306).
There are two preconditions for good results with Alceste: (1) the textual data must be consistent
within the whole (e.g., themes and conditions of production are both consistent); and (2) the text must be
large enough for the statistical output to be relevant (with a minimum of 10,000 words).
Alceste determines word distribution patterns within a text, with the objective being to obtain a
primary statistical classification of simple statements (the Elementary Contextual Units described in the
text) 32 in order to reveal the most characteristic words, which in turn can be distinguished as word classes
that represent different forms of discourse concerning the topic of the text. Through its dictionary,
Alceste prepares the text by reducing different forms of the same word (in the form of plurals, suffixes,
etc.) to the root form and transforms irregular verbs to the indicative, thereby producing a matrix of
reduced forms. It also subdivides the corpus into function words (articles, prepositions, conjunctions,
of 38
pronouns, and auxiliary verbs) and content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs). The content
words are understood to carry the meaning of the discourse and the final analysis is based on these. The
program creates a data matrix (an indicator matrix) which allows an analysis of statistical similarities
and dissimilarities of words in order to identify repetitive language patterns. This matrix relates relevant
words in columns and contextual units in rows, so that if a given word is present, a 1 is entered in the
cell; otherwise, the entry is 0. Then, using descending hierarchical classification analysis, the program
identifies word classes. The first class comprises the total set of contextual units in the initial indicator
matrix. The program then attempts to partition that class into two further classes that contain different
vocabulary and ideally do not contain any overlapping words. The methods used for this are optimal
scaling and the adoption of a maximum chi-squared criterion for cutting the ordered set of words. Alceste
compares the distribution of words in each of the two new classes with the average distribution of words.
Different forms of discourse that use different vocabulary will result in an observed word distribution
that deviates systematically from one where the words are independent of each other. The procedure
searches for maximally separate patterns of co-occurrence between the word classes. The chi-squared
criterion is thus used as a measure of the relationship that exists between words, rather than as a test.
Following an iterative process, the descending hierarchical classification method decomposes the
classes until a predetermined number of iterations fails to result in further divisions. (The default 2
threshold for selection of characteristic statements (ECUs) is 0, and for tags it is 2. ECUs with 2 values
below 0 are unclassified; hence, the percent of classified ECUs (Table 1) constitutes a goodness of fit
measure.) With each step, the descending hierarchical classification uses the first factor of the factorial
analysis of correspondences; its top-down design thus allows it to eliminate class artefacts (Reinert
2006). The result is a hierarchy of classes, which may be schematized as a tree diagram.
For a detailed exposition of the algorithm, see (Reinert 1983), and for a step-by-step
explanation of each stage of the analysis, see (Reinert 1990). More simply, the classification follows
a specified procedure using chi-squared, and may be illustrated using Kronberger and Wagners
of 38
example of the decomposition of an original matrix into two classes (Kronberger and Wagner 2000:
309).
Specific vocabulary Overlapping Specific vocabulary

of class 2 vocabulary of class 3
Food fruit say word j Cure cancer
Class 2 45 12 20 k2j 0 0 k2
Class 3 0 0 21 k3j 33 20 k3
45 12 41 kj 33 20 k
Classes 2 and 3 are optimally separate in that they have as little overlap in words as possible. The
numbers in the table (k2j, k3j) indicate the frequency of contextual units for each class containing a
specific word j. In our example, class 2 consists of statements containing words like food and
fruit, while words like cancer and cure are typical for class 3. Of course, it will rarely be
possible to separate statements such that words occurring in one class do not appear in the other.
There will always be some overlapping vocabulary, like the word say in the example (Kronberger
and Wagner 2000: 309).
The chi-squared procedure then establishes out of all possible procedures two classes that
maximize the following criterion:
k 2 j k 3 j 2
= k 2 k 3
2
k j , where
jJ k 2

k3
k 2 j = k ij ; k 2 = k 2 j ; k j = k 2 j + k 3 j
iI 2 iI 1
[Graph 5 ABOUT HERE]

of 38
(1988). "Margaret Thatcher Speech - The Forerunner (http://forerunner.com/forerunner)." Retrieved 5 August,
2008.
(2005). Memorial Services in Congress of the United States and Tributes In Eulogy of Ronald Reagan (House
Document No. 108-227, [Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 135] 108th Congress-Second Session).
Washington, D.C., United States Government Printing Office
Abbott, P. (1997). "Leadership by Exemplar: Reagan's FDR and Thatcher's Churchill." Presidential Studies
Quarterly 27(2): 186-206.
Adonis, A. and T. Hames, Eds. (1994). A Conservative Revolution? The Thatcher-Reagan Decade In Perspective.
Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Airoldi, E. M., S. E. Feinberg, et al. (2007). "Whose Ideas? Whose Words? Authorship of Ronald Reagan's Radio
Addresses." PS: Political Science and Politics July: 501-506.
Albanese, C. L. (1976). Sons of the Fathers: The Civil Religion of the
American Revolution. Philadelphia, Temple University Press.
Albright, J. (2007). Political Parties in Time and Space. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science
Association, Chicago.
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, I. (1953 (1984)). Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. New York,
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Bailey, A. and C. Schonhardt-Bailey (2008). "Does Deliberation Matter in FOMC Monetary Policymaking? The
Volcker Revolution of 1979." Political Analysis 16(4): 404-427.
Bauer, M. (2000). Classical Content Analysis: A Review. Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A
Practical Handbook. M. W. Bauer and G. Gaskell. London, Sage Publications: 131-151.
Bellah, R. N. and P. E. Hammond (1980). Varieties of Civil
Religion. San Francisco., Harper & Row.
Benoit, K. and S. Mikhailov (2007). Correcting the Error in the Comparative Manifesto Project Estimates,. Midwest
Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago.
Benzecri, J. P. (1981). Pratique de l'analyse des donnees: linguistique et lexicologie. Paris, Dunod.
Bertier, P. and J. M. Bouroche (1975). Analyse des donnees multidimensionnelles. Paris, Presses Universitaires de
of 38
France.
Bimes, T. (2003). Reagan: The Soft-Sell Populist. The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its
Legacies. W. E. Brownlee and H. D. Graham. Lawrence, University Press of Kansas.
Blasius, J. and V. Thiessen (2001). "Methodological Artifacts in Measures of Political Efficacy and Trust: A
Multiple Correspondence Analysis." Political Analysis 9(1): 1-20.
Brugidou, M. (1998). ""Epitaphes, l'image de Francois Mitterrand travers l'analyse d'une question ouverte pose
sa mort (Epitaphs, Francois Mitterrand's Image: An Analysis of an Open Question Asked on His Death)."
Revue Franaise de Science Politique 48(1): 97-120.
Brugidou, M. (2003). "Argumentation and Values: An Analysis of Ordinary Political Competence Via An Open-
Ended Question." International Journal of Public Opinion Research 15(4): 413-430.
Bunch, W. (2009). Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our
Future London, The Free Press.
Campbell, K. K. and K. H. Jamieson (1990). Deeds Done in Words. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Charteris-Black, J. (2005). Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphors. Houndmills, UK and NY,
Palgrave MacMillan.
Crichlow, S. (2006). The Eyes of Kesteven: How the Worldviews of Margaret Thatcher and Her Cabinet Influenced
British Foreign Policy. Beliefs and Leadership in World Politics: Methods and Applications of Operational
Code Analysis M. Schafer and S. G. Walker. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
Diday, E., J. Lemaire, et al. (1982). Elements d'analyse des donnees. Paris, Dunod.
Dunn, C. W., Ed. (1984). American Political Theology: Historical
Perspective and Theoretical Analysis. New York, Praeger.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Language and Power, 2nd ed. New York, Pearson Education Ltd.
Gabel, M. J. and J. D. Huber (2000). "Putting Parties in Their Place: Inferring Party Left-Right Ideological
Positions from Party Manifestos Data." American Journal of Political Science 44(1): 94-103.
Garson, G. D. (2002). Researching and Teaching Political Culture through Web-Based Content Profile Analysis.
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.
Garson, G. D. (2008). "Correspondence Analysis, from Statnotes Topics in Multivariate Analysis
http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/statnote.htm." Retrieved 8 July, 2008.

of 38
Greenacre, M. J. (1993). Correspondence Analysis in Practice. London, Academic Press.
Guerin-Pace, F. (1998). "Textual Analysis, An Exploratory Tool for the Social Sciences." Population: An English
Selection, special issue of New Methodological Approaches in the Social Sciences 10(1): 73-95.
Hames, T. (1994). The Special Relationship. A Conservative Revolution? The Thatcher-Reagan Decade In
Perspective. A. Adonis and T. Hames. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Hargrove, E. (1998). The President As Leader: Appealing To The Better Angels Of Our Nature. Lawrence,
University Press of Kansas.
Hayashi, C. (1950). "On the quantification of qualitative data from the mathematics-statistical point of view."
Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, II.
Heclo, H. (2003). Ronald Reagan and the American Public Philosophy. The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic
Conservatism and Its Legacies. W. E. Brownlee and H. D. Graham. Lawrence, University Press of Kansas.
Hillard, D., S. Purpura, et al. (2007). An Active Learning Framework for Classifying Political Text. Annual
Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.
Hopkins, D. and G. King (2007). Extracting Systematic Social Science Meaning from Text. Annual Meeting of the
Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.
Hughey, M. W. (1983). Civil Religion and Moral Order: Theoretical and
Historical Dimensions. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press.
Ionescu, G. (1991). Leadership in an Interdependent World: The Statemanship of Adenauer, De Gaulle, Thatcher,
Reagan and Gorbachev. Boulder, Westview Press.
Jacoby, W. G. (1991). Data Theory and Dimensional Analysis. London, Sage.
Johnston, I. (2009 (3 May)). 'Awe-inspiring' Margaret Thatcher an example to follow, says David Cameron
Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/5268511/Awe-inspiring-Margaret-
Thatcher-an-example-to-follow-says-David-Cameron.html
Klebanov, B. B., D. Diermeier, et al. (2008). "Lexical Cohesion Analysis of Political Speech." Political Analysis
16(4): 447-463.
Krieger, J. (1986). Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Decline. New York, Oxford University Press.
Kronberger, N. and W. Wagner (2000). Keywords in Context: Statistical Analysis of Text Features. Qualitative
of 38
Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook. M. W. Bauer and G. Gaskell. London,
Sage Publications: 299-317.
Lahlou, L. (1996). "A method to extract social representations from linguistic corpora." Japanese Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology 36: 278-291.
Laver, M. and K. Benoit (2002). "Locating TDs in policy spaces using computer word-scoring." Irish Political
Studies 17(1): 59-72.
Laver, M., K. Benoit, et al. (2002). "Estimating the policy positions of political actors using words as data."
American Political Science Review 97(2): 311-331.
Laver, M., K. Benoit, et al. (2003). "Extracting Policy Positions from Political Texts Using Words as Data."
American Political Science Review 97(2): 311-331.
Laver, M. and J. Garry (2000). "Estimating Policy Positions from Political Texts." American Journal of Political
Science 44(3): 619-634.
Little, G. (1988). Strong Leadership: Thatcher, Reagan and An Eminent Person. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Lowe, W. (2008). "Understanding Wordscores." Political Analysis 16(4): 356-371.
Monroe, B. L., M. P. Colaresi, et al. (2008). "Fightin' Words: Lexical Feature Selection and Evaluation for
Identifying the Content of Political Conflict." Political Analysis 16(4): 372-403.
Noel-Jorand, M. C., M. Reinert, et al. (1995). "Discourse analysis and psychological adaptation to high altitude
hypoxia." Stress Medicine 11: 27-39.
Noel-Jorand, M. C., M. Reinert, et al. (1997). "A New Approach to Discourse Analysis in Psychiatry, applied to
Schizophrenic Patient Speech." Schizophrenia Research 25: 183-198.
Noel-Jorand, M. C., M. Reinert, et al. (2004). "Schizophrenia: The Quest for a Minimum Sense of Identity to Ward
Off Delusional Psychosis." The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 49(6): 394-398.
O'Sullivan, J. (2006). The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister. Washington, DC, Regnery Publishing, Inc.
Pierard, R. V. and R. D. Linder (1988). Civil Religion and the Presidency. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan.
Pierson, P. (1994). Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Popping, R. (2004). email correspondence with authors, 29 October 2004.
Proksch, S.-O. and J. B. Slapin (forthcoming). "Position-taking in European Parliament Speeches." British Journal
of 38
of Political Science.
Reagan, R. (1990). An American Life. New York, Simon & Schuster.
Reinert, M. (1983). "Une methode de classification descendante hierarchique: application a l'analyse lexicale par
contexte." Les Cahiers de l'Analyse des Donnees 8(2): 187-198.
Reinert, M. (1990). "ALCESTE. Une methodologie d'analyse des donnees textuelles et une application: Aurelia de
Gerard de Nerval." Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique 26: 24-54.
Reinert, M. (1998). ALCESTE users' manuel (English version). Toulouse, Image.
Reinert, M. (2003). "Le rle de la rptition dans la reprsentation du sens et son approche statistique dans la
mthode Alceste." Semiotica 147: 389-420.
Reinert, M. (2006). email correspondence with author. London.
Riddell, P. (1994). Ideology in Practice. A Conservative Revolution? The Thatcher-Reagan Decade In Perspective.
A. Adonis and T. Hames. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Roy, R. and A. Denzau (2004). Fiscal Policy Convergence from Reagan to Blair. London, Routledge Publishing
Company.
Savaresi, S. M. and D. L. Boley (2001). On the Performance of Bisecting K-Means and PDDP. 1st SIAM
Conference on Data Mining Chicago.
Savoie, D. J. (1994). Thatcher, Reagan, Mulroney: In Search of a New Bureaucracy. Toronto, University of
Toronto Press.
Schonhardt-Bailey, C. (2005). "Measuring Ideas More Effectively: An Analysis of Bush and Kerry's National
Security Speeches." PS: Political Science and Politics 38(3): 701-711.
Schonhardt-Bailey, C. (2006). From the Corn Laws to Free Trade: Interests, Ideas and Institutions in Historical
Perspective. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Schonhardt-Bailey, C. (2008). "The Congressional Debate on Partial-Birth Abortion: Constitutional Gravitas and
Moral Passion." British Journal of Political Science 38: 383-410.
Slapin, J. and S.-O. Proksch (2007). A Scaling Model for Estimating Time-Series Party Positions from Texts.
Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.
Smith, G. (2007). "Margaret Thatcher's Christian Faith: A Case Study in Political Theology." Journal of Religious
Ethics 35(2): 233-257.

of 38
Steinbach, M., G. Karypis, et al. (2000). A Comparison of Document Clustering Techniques. Proceedings of the
World Text Mining Conference, Boston.
Sykes, P. L. (2000). Presidents And Prime Ministers: Conviction Politics In The Anglo-American Tradition.
Lawrence, University Press of Kansas.
Thatcher, M. (1988). "Speech to General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Margaret Thatcher Foundation
(http://www.margaretthatcher.org)." Retrieved 5 August, 2008.
Thatcher, M. (1993). The Downing Street Years. New York, HarperCollins Publishers.
Thatcher, M. (1995). The Path To Power. New York, HarperCollins Publishers.
vanSchuur, W. H. (1984). Structure in Political Beliefs: A new model for stochastic unfolding with application to
European party activists. Amsterdam, CT Press.
Weller, S. C. and A. K. Romney (1990). Metric Scaling: Correspondence Analysis. London, Sage Publications.
Williams, H. (2009 ). The Message for Britain Between Obama's Lines. The Sunday Times. London: News Review
p 4 (4 January).
Yager, E. (2006). Ronald Reagan's Journey: Democrat to Republican. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
1
That is, about 59% of the text that was classified.
2
Both preferred smaller, more limited government but they employed different strategies to achieve this
objective. In part, the different strategies stemmed from Reagan having to face reluctant Democrats in the
House. Moreover, Thatcher was less enamoured of supply-side economics than Reagan.
3
One notable exception was her quotation of The Prayer of St Francis of Assisi, upon her first arrival at
Downing Street. Yet, even here, she carefully selected phrases that excluded any mention Lord or
Divine Master. Interestingly, her version of the prayer does not follow the more traditional and popular
one (which excludes discord and harmony) but rather follows the version which appears in the
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book of Alcoholics Anonymous (Alcoholics Anonymous World
Services 1953 (1984): 99).

of 38
4
We are grateful to Terri Bimes and Mary Stuckey for their recommendations in tailoring our sample of
speeches.
5
Moreover, a sample that includes non-seminal speeches invites criticism as it would invariably require
more subjective judgment in the selection process.

6
Of these, 11 are from Conservative Party Conferences, 11 from Lord Mayor Banquets, and 16 from the
House of Commons.
7
Two of these are inaugural speeches (January 1981, January 1985), seven are state of the union (only 3
were given in his first term, in January 1982, January 1983, and January 1984; and 4 in his second term,
in February 1985, February 1986, January 1987 and January 1988) and one is his farewell speech
(January 1989). These speeches are considered by scholars in presidential rhetoric to be the most
important to the Office of the President, since they attempt to influence coming legislative programs,
inaugurals and farewells by creating a view of the country and its future, State of the Union addresses by
setting a legislative agenda and making specific recommendations. . . . [They] include public mediations
on national values and identity (Campbell and Jamieson 1990: 212 ). Moreover, (a) the Constitution
requires the president to give the State of the Union to Congress (and since Wilson this has been in the
form of a speech); and (b) unlike most other speeches, it is delivered to a national audience and receives
widespread media coverage. Inaugural and farewell addresses are also prominent in capturing national
media coverage.
8
While these eight speeches do not rise to the same level of importance as the previous ten, they do
establish rhetorical equivalence with Thatchers speeches to the annual party conference. These were
obtained from the Reagan Library website (www.reagan.utexas.edu/archive/speeches).

9
See NEMIS (Network of Excellence in text Mining & its applications in Statistics) for a brief survey of
124 text analysis software packages (http://nemis.cti.gr/). For a showcase of software used in political
science, see http://www.purpuras.net/apsagroup/. For free software for coding text, see
http://www.qdap.pitt.edu/cat-updates.htm.
of 38
10
Examples of its application in the social sciences include: (Noel-Jorand, Reinert et al. 1995; Lahlou
1996; Noel-Jorand, Reinert et al. 1997; Brugidou 1998; Brugidou 2003; Noel-Jorand, Reinert et al. 2004;
Schonhardt-Bailey 2006; Bailey and Schonhardt-Bailey 2008; Schonhardt-Bailey 2008).

11
Although subsequent versions may allow a larger corpus, Alceste 4.7 requires that the corpus not
exceed 15 mb.
12
Plurals and conjugation endings are reduced to a single form and nonce words are eliminated from the
analysis. This leaves a smaller word count which is analyzed by the program.
13
These are deemed passive as they do not contribute to either the calculation of the word classes or
the factors in the correspondence analysis.

14
Popping notes that the ECU is akin to the recording unit used in other programs, where it is usually
defined by the researcher (Popping 2004).

15
A contextual unit is equivalent to one or more successive ECU(s). The two calculations are done with
two different parameters for the selected number of words per contextual unit in order to check the
reliability of the classes and the stability of the results (Reinert 1998).
16
Previous automated content analysis of parliamentary debates have similarly captured a distinct class
associated with parliamentary rhetoric (see (Schonhardt-Bailey 2006).

17
This sample includes both his ten seminal speeches plus 27 further speeches randomly selected from
the same website. (Of the 94 major speeches posted on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library website,
ten were selected as seminal speeches, as described above. Two of the remaining speeches were debates
between Reagan and Walter Mondale in 1984, and so were eliminated from our pool. We then selected
every third speech from the remaining 82 speeches, listed in chronological order. These 27 further
speeches were added to our original ten speeches, giving us a corpora of 158,657 wordsroughly on par
with the 154,947 words in Thatchers seminal speeches.) While the 27 further speeches (listed on
[authors website] ) reflect important but not seminal speeches, the content of these does not equate to
that of Thatchers seminal speeches and so we do not use this file for our final analysis. Nonetheless, our
of 38
analysis of the larger sample lends confidence to our results for Reagans seminal speechesthat is, the
four classes identified in the seminal speeches are also identified in the larger sample. The larger sample
reveals a further two classesConservatism and International Communist/Terrorist Threat.

18
The standard report lists the top 20 ECUs for each class, ranked by chi square association. However, a
separate file is produced that lists all the ECUs for each class, where the default cut-off for selection is
zero.
19
Meaningful words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and some adverbs. These comprise the vocabulary of
the corpus and are used to calculate the classes. Function words (because, where, as, and so on) are
recognized by the internal dictionary and are required for syntax, butlike the tagged indicatorsare
not used in the calculation of classes (Reinert 1998: 12). For a table of the levels of 2 values for words,
which may then be used in conjunction with a standard 2 table, see (Reinert 1998: 41).
20
Using descending hierarchical classification, Alceste creates two binary tables (or two classifications)
which are then compared. The ECUs that are retained for analysis are those found in both
classificationsa process which effectively creates a stable level of partitioning. The stability of the
partitioning is measured by constructing a table of co-occurrence, which is the cross between the
partition obtained in the first classification and the partition obtained in the second classification. The
result is a signed chi-square tablethat is a data table with the positive and negative links between the
classes. This signed table is used to test the statistical significance of the table of co-occurrence, where a
high positive chi-square indicate(s) a strong positive link (a chance occurrence would be expected to be
less), a high negative chi-square, a strong negative link (a chance occurrence would be expected to be
more) (Reinert 1998: 26-27).

21
This minimum value for word selection within Alceste varies from 2.13 to 20, with smaller text files
tending toward the lower threshold and larger ones toward the high threshold. The basic rule of thumb
with Alceste is (as with any statistical analysis)the more data, the easier it is to attain statistical
significance (hence larger text files have to attain a higher threshold to be statistically significant).
of 38
22
Whereas Alceste uses descending hierarchical classification, T-Lab employs a hierarchical clustering
approach, in which the bisecting K-means algorithm allows one to repeat the bisecting of clusters until
the desired number of clusters is reached (Steinbach, Karypis et al. 2000; Savaresi and Boley 2001).
23
Alceste cross-tabulates classes and words in their root form in order to create a matrix which can
then be subjected to factor correspondence analysis (Greenacre 1993). (Greenacre and Underhill
1982; Greenacre 1984; Weller and Romney 1990; Greenacre 1993), (Blasius and Thiessen 2001).
24
For this, correspondence analysis uses the chi-squared distance, which resembles the Euclidean
distance between points in physical space. However, in correspondence analysis, each squared
difference between coordinates is divided by the corresponding element of the average profile (where
the profile is a set of frequencies divided by their total). The justification for using the chi-squared
concept is that it allows one to transform the frequencies by dividing the square roots of the expected
frequencies, thereby equalizing the variances. This can be compared to factor analysis, where data on
different scales are standardized. Greenacre provides further geometric reasons for using the chi-
squared distance in correspondence analysis (Greenacre 1993: 36).

25
Correspondence analysis usually refers to the inertia of a table, which can also be called
association (Weller and Romney 1990) or variance. As Garson explains, total inertia is the sum of
eigenvalues and reflects the spread of points around the centroid. Total inertia may be interpreted as
the percent of inertia (variance) in the original correspondence table explained by all the computed
dimensions in the correspondence analysis (Garson 2008). A corresponding 2 value can be
obtained by multiplying the association value by the total n of the table.

26
The association and 2 statistic may be interpreted geometrically as the degree of dispersion of the
set of rows and columns (or, profile points) around their average, where the points are weighted.
27
Graphs exclude dates of speeches, as these conveyed no clear finding.
28
In total, five factors are identified in the correspondence analysis. The third, fourth and fifth factors
obtain eigenvalues and percent associations of 0.163 and 20.4, 0.124 and 15.5, and 0.10 and 12.5,
of 38
respectively. (Usually, the dimensionality of the system is one less than the number of classes in the
profile (Greenacre 1993: 14) .)

29
T-Lab does not offer a similar feature.
30
Alceste follows the standard strategy of factor analysis and multidimensional scaling approaches in
assuming that all the dimensions operate simultaneously in contributing to the observed differences
between the words in correspondence space. Hence, it adopts a standard multidimensional solution in
which each word is given a coordinate on every dimension contained in the space. An alternative
approachmultiple unidimensional scalingis not explored here (vanSchuur 1984; Jacoby 1991: 36).
31
T-Lab captures this overlap for both classes by assigning significance to both leaders (row d, Graph 5).
32
For Alceste, statements are defined as contextual units. The program automatically determines
contextual units with reference to punctuation and the length of the statement up to a maximum of 250
characters.
Table 1: Alceste Analysis: Basic Statistics for Speeches of President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher
(a.) Seminal speeches for both Reagan and (b.) Seminal speeches for Reagan only (c.) Seminal speeches for Thatcher
Thatcher only
Total Word Count 226,282 71,335 154,947
Unique Words Analyzed 95,026 30,153 63,902
I.C.U.s (= number of speeches) 56 18 38
Classified E.C.U.s 4557 (=84%) 1240 (=72% of the retained E.C.U.) 2841 (=77% of the retained E.C.U.)
Lexical Classes 6 4 6
Distribution of Classes (%) 1 16.9% Big Government/Fiscal 1 58.5% Civil Religion 1 17.5% Big Government/Fiscal
Policy (Reagan) 2 19.7% Big Government/Fiscal Policy
2 15.1% Domestic Economic Growth Policy 2 12.7% Soviet Threat
(Thatcher) 3 8.7% Domestic Economic 3 17.9% Domestic Economic
3 11.4% Soviet Threat (Thatcher) Growth Growth
4 10.4% Conservatism (Thatcher & 4 13.2% Soviet Threat 4 7.5% HC Procedures
Reagan) 5 24.4% Conservatism
5 16.3% Public Service Reform 6 20.0% Public Services Reform
(Thatcher)
6 30.0% Civil Religion (Reagan)
Figure 1: Characteristic Words and Phrases for Classes in the Combined
Speeches of Reagan and Thatcher
Figure 1a Class 1 Big Government / Fiscal Policy (Reagan)

(41) to move #steadily toward a balanced #budget, we must also
federal+ lighten #governments claim on our #total #economy. We will not do this
by raising #taxes. We must make sure that our #economy #grows
#faster than the #growth in #spending by the #federal #government. In
our fiscal #year 1986 #budget, overall #government #program
deficit+ #spending will be frozen at the #current #level.
tax+ (41) and #inflation is a major #problem which cannot be #cured without
#curbing #public #spending. If the #government overspends, and
#borrows or #prints #money to meet the #deficit, then prices and
#interest #rates will go on rising--there you have #inflation and the #poor,
tax
and the #pensioners, and the young home buyers will all suffer.
inflation+
spend budget+
rate+ (35) these are the automatic #spending #programs, such as #food
stamps, that cannot be #simply frozen and that have #grown by #over
400 #percent since 1970. They are the largest #single cause of the
built-in or structural #deficit #problem.
Figure 1b Class 2 Domestic Economic Growth (Thatcher)

(60) #record #output, sound #exports, #record #investment and
product+ #record #living #standards, and which #provide the best #long-term
private+ #prospects for a #fundamental #improvement in the #performance of
the #British economy and for the #creation of #new #jobs.
market+
(48) against 27 per #cent. And that #proportion, like ours, has #declined.
goods+
#New #technology will #flourish only in #conditions of #competition. We
have already ended the #monopoly in #telecommunications and we shall
reintroduce the bill to denationalise #British Telecom.
(48) they #help to #provide #opportunity, but that #opportunity can be

invest+ grasped only if our #industries #work force and #management alike
have the will, the #vitality and the flair to #produce the #products and
#services that will #sell.
job+ sector+
industrial+
Figure 1c Class 3 Soviet Threat (Thatcher)

(79) but while the Warsaw Pact #retains its massive superiority in
missile+ #chemical and #conventional #weapons, and while the basic causes of
#conflict between #East and #West are undiminished, we shall
#continue to #rely on #nuclear #deterrence for #Europes #defence.
europe+ (75) twelve months which have seen the most #profound #changes in
west+ the #Soviet #Union and we dont yet know where they will end. Twelve
arm+ months in which the #threat of #military #attack on #Western #Europe
has been radically #diminished and that would never have happened
weapon+ but for our #resolve to #maintain a #strong #defence.
(70) if they #agreed, no #Cruise or Pershing II #missiles would be

defence+ #deployed. That is President #Reagans Zero Option. Still there has
nuclear soviet+ been no #positive #response from the #Soviet #Union and all the
#signs are that there will not be.
Figure 1d Class 4 Conservatism (Conservative and Republican Parties)
(60) Thatcher: and may I #say #thank you to our #Party #Chairman,
Kenneth Baker, for getting our #conference off to a #flying start with such
a terrific speech. #Speeches from all #ministers have been #superb. We
are the right team for Britains future. #Mr #President, this #conference, as
distinct from last #weeks #little exercise in shadow-boxing in Brighton,
has #addressed, head-on, the real issues of the #day.
chairman+
minister+ (35) Reagan: #well, the #Liberals are #feeling #pretty sorry for
conference+ themselves, and thats why theyre anxious about this election. They
#know that unless they #deliver a #telling blow this year to #conservatism,
thank+
34) Reagan: in the late seventies Proposition 13 and the Sagebrush
speaker+ Rebellion; in 1980, for the first time in 28 years, a #Republican #Senate
mr congratul+
president+ is elected; so, may I #say, is a Conservative #president. In 1984 that
#Conservative administration is re-elected in a 49-state sweep. And the
#day the #votes came in, I #thought of Walt Whitman: I #hear America
singing.
Figure 1e Class 5 Public Service Reform (Thatcher)

(47) the #gracious #speech #outlines a #full #programme of #legislation.
Its main #provisions can be summarised #under three #headings. First,
there are #provisions that #deal with industry and commerce; secondly,
there are those #particularly #concerned with the #care, protection and
gracious+ #education of children;
opposition+
(43) we shall therefore #introduce #major #housing #reforms in this
#session. First, we shall #give #council #tenants where they are
speech+
dissatisfied with their landlords the #right to transfer to other #approved
landlords, such as tenant co-operatives and #housing associations.
member+
(37) the #leader of the #opposition also #mentioned the #reference in
right+ the #gracious #speech to trade union #reform. We remember that it
was the #Labour Government that #introduced two new #measures of
gentleman+ secret+ #legislation, which #gave trade unions enormous extra #powers and
hon
which #ended up in the winter of discontent.
Figure 1f Class 6 Civil Religion (Reagan)

(43) we are, and #proudly so, but we are also the keepers of the flame
of #liberty. And as such, we #believe that #America should be a
#source of #support, both #moral and #material, for all those on #Gods
#earth who #struggle for #freedom.
god+ nation+ men
(37) #theres no #story more heartening in our #history than the
#progress that #weve #made #toward the brotherhood of #man that
#God #intended for us. #Let us resolve there will be no #turning back
american+ or hesitation on the road to an #America #rich in #dignity and abundant
america+ with opportunity for all our #citizens.
(34) the #heart of #America is strong; its good and #true. The cynics
were #wrong; #America never was a #sick #society. Were #seeing
free+ society+
freedom+ rededication to bedrock #values of #faith, #family, work, #neighborhood,
peace, and #freedom--#values that help bring us #together as one
#people, from the youngest #child to the most senior #citizen.
Figure 2: Seminal Speeches of Reagan and Thatcher: Tree Diagram of Classes
Domestic Economic Policy Protecting Values and Security
Big Government/ Domestic Economic Public Service Reform Soviet Threat Conservatism Civil Religion
Fiscal Policy Growth (Thatcher) (Thatcher) (Reagan, Thatcher) (Reagan)
(Reagan) (Thatcher)
Class 1 (16.9%) Class 2 (15.1%) Class 5 (16.3%) Class 3 (11.4%) Class 4 (10.4%) Class 6 (30.0%)
Figure 3: Correspondence Analysis of Classes for
Speeches of Reagan and Thatcher
20
Domestic
18
16
14
12 Republican party
Farewell
10 Civil Religion (Reagan)
Conservatism
8 Inaugural (Thatcher and Reagan)
Reagan
6
4 Public Service
Reform (Thatcher)
2
State of
0 Union
Conservative Party
-2 Domestic Economic
HCspeech
Growth (Thatcher)
-4 Big Government /
Fiscal Policy (Reagan)
-6
Thatcher
-8 Lord Mayor's Banquet:
Mansion House Speech
-10
-12
International
-14
Soviet Threat (Thatcher)
-16
-18
-20
-36 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 36
Protecting Values Domestic

and Security Economic Policy
Eigenvalue % Association % Cumulative
Factor 1 0.24 30.14 33.14
Factor 2 0.17 21.47 51.61

Figure 4: Correspondence Analysis of Word Distribution in 3-D*
a 2 3 b 2
1
1
3
Axis 2 (21%) Axis 2 (21%)
Axis 3 (20%) Axis 3 (20%) Axis 1 (30%)
Axis 1 (30%)
c d
2 2
Axis 2 (21%) Axis 2 (21%)

1 3
3 1
Axis 1 (30%) Axis 3 (20%) Axis 1 (30%)

Axis 3 (20%)
*The sizes of the cell entries reflects their chi square values.
Soviet Threat (Thatcher) Domestic Economic Growth (Thatcher)
Public Service Reform (Thatcher) Civil Religion (Reagan)
Conservatism (Reagan & Thatcher) Big Government/Fiscal Policy (Reagan)

Graph 5: Seminal Speeches of Reagan and Thatcher: Thematic Classification Compared Across Software
Themes, Classified
by Alceste
Soviet Threat Big Government/ Domestic Economic Conservatism

Public Service Reform Civil Religion (Reagan)
Fiscal Policy Growth (Thatcher) (Thatcher and
(a)
(Thatcher) 30.0%
(Thatcher) 16.3% (Reagan) 16.9% Reagan)10.4%
11.4% 15.1%
Default Clustering
Soviet Threat Parliamentary Rhetoric and Fiscal Policy / Economic

by T-Lab
(foreign policy to ensure freedom) Growth / Inflation Civil Religion and Conservatism
Reform of Labour
(b)
(Reagan and Thatcher) (Thatcher & Reagan) (Reagan)

Unions (Thatcher)
22.7% 29.6% 24.3%
23.4%
default into 5 Clusters
Partitioning T-Lab
Soviet Threat Parliamentary Rhetoric and Domestic Economic

Fiscal and Monetary Growth / British Civil Religion and Conservatism
(foreign policy to ensure freedom) Reform of Labour
Policy (Reagan and (Reagan)
(c)
(Reagan and Thatcher) Unions (Thatcher) Industry / Jobs

Thatcher) 17.4% (Thatcher) 12.2% 24.3%
22.7% 23.4%
default into 6 Clusters
Partitioning T-Lab
Soviet Threat Parliamentary Rhetoric and Domestic Economic Social and Civil Religion
Fiscal and Monetary Growth / British and American
(foreign policy to ensure freedom) Reform of Labour Family Values
(d)
Policy (Reagan and Industry / Jobs Conservatism (Reagan)

(Reagan and Thatcher) Unions (Thatcher) (2:1, Reagan and
Thatcher) 17.4% (Thatcher) 12.2% 15.9%
22.7% 23.4% Thatcher) 8.5%
Note: The size of each box represents the percentage distribution of the thematic content across each row, and the shading reinforces this same distribution. The largest box
(Civil Religion) constitutes the baseline from which the remaining boxes are created. The scaling of the rectangles is according to their area, holding height constant.

Thatcher Reagan

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Thatcher Reagan

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey and Edward Yager

The rhetoric of presidents and prime

This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/39086/

Originally available from the Authors website

Available in LSE Research Online: October 2011

2009 The Author

The Rhetoric of Presidents and Prime Ministers: A Textual Analysis of

Ronald Reagans and Margaret Thatchers Speeches

Word Count: 10,734

She's the best man in England.

Ronald Reagans depiction of Margaret Thatcher

[He was] one of my closest political and dearest personal friends.

Margaret Thatcher, mourning the death of Ronald Reagan

times and at different venues.

section V discusses our results in broader context and concludes.

II. THE MEETING OF MINDS

a. Political Philosophy and Policy

Savoie 1994; Sykes 2000: 115; O'Sullivan 2006: 138).

Strategic Defense Initiative (Thatcher 1993: 463-468).

b. Conviction and Inspiration

was fundamentally subversive of popular choice (Thatcher 1995: 149).

(Reagan 1990: 287).

practical dreams, as Reagan call(ed) them. (Little 1988: 143)

scholar notes that,

As Ionescus bad pun implies, what appears to be a significant difference in rhetorical

(Hargrove 1998: 51)

any equivalent source of poetic power (Williams 2009 ).

III. DATA AND METHODOLOGY

core beliefs in their seminal speeches, 4 we therefore focus on these speeches. 5

(www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/) and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

(www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches). Thatchers speeches are from her time as prime minister

Foundation classifies as seminal. 6

to the Conservative Political Action Conference. 8

further details in the appendix.

[Table 1 about here]

IV. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

a. Identifying the Themes

speeches, we take measures to address this problem (described below).

leader-specific files may be judged to be reasonably robust.

i. Themes in the Combined Speeches of Reagan and Thatcher

[Figure 1 about here]

Government / Fiscal Policy.

theme resonated predominantly in Reagans seminal State of the Union addresses.

used such language to inspire and unite Americans.

b. Linkages Between the Classes

of Big Government, Domestic Economic Growth, Soviet Threat and Conservatism.

[Figure 2 about here]

Thatchers focus on Domestic Economic Growth and Public Services Reform.

to its foreign policy dimension.

[Figure 3 about here]

ii. Correspondence Analysis

space appears to miss almost half of the sources of variation.

security versus economic policy.

rather than to economics.

[Figure 4 about here]

where the language of the two leaders is more distinct.

Reagans distinctly American theme of civil religion.

both leaders touted the credentials of Conservatism as a political philosophyparticularly relative to

in her seminal speeches of a similar, spiritual and inspirational rhetoric.

and mind and spirit, and on them, he was no actor at all.

Or, as Norm Coleman (R-Minn) stated in a similar tribute (2005: 234):

above selfishness, division, and fear. He inspired us.

the perceived deficiencies in British public services.

APPENDIX : DETAILS OF ALCESTE METHODOLOGY AND COMPARISON OF ALCESTE