Festschrift für Fritz W. Scharpf - MPIfG

V. Schmidt · The Boundaries of “Bounded Generalizations” 335
2.2.1 Discursive Interactions in National Single-Actor Systems
In single-actor systems characterized by hierarchical direction, where a restricted
elite generally constructs the policies that governments have the capacity
to impose, the coordinative discourse among policy actors tends to be
comparatively thin while the communicative discourse tends to be elaborate,
as political actors legitimate their policies to the public in order to gain their
acquiescence, win future elections, and avoid protest (see Figure 2). Here,
although the ideas may originate in discursive policy communities, the policy
mediator is most often a government-related actor who coordinates the
construction of the policy program, consulting and interacting with relatively
few other actors (see Schmidt 2002b). Where societal actors are involved
in policy construction, the coordinative discourse tends to limit itself
to formal consultation, with the government more in the business of informing
with an eye to testing the waters rather than deliberating – as typified
in the French planning process of the l950s and l960s (see Schmidt 1996).
The discursive interaction as a result is authoritative in tone. As such, it
is similar to that found in judicial decision-making, which is equally
authoritative in its hierarchical and unilateral manner, and where legitimacy
is based on providing explanations which give “good reasons” based on the
shared cognitive and normative criteria of the polity as a whole. The
authoritative tone of the discourse is especially in evidence at the communicative
stage of discourse, as governments seek to convince the public of the
necessity and appropriateness of decisions without expecting to have to accommodate
alternative views. In this context, the more the government is
able to speak as one, in a single voice, the more authoritative the discourse
is likely to sound. Thus, single-actor systems such as the British, with single
party government by Prime Ministers able to impose party discipline – in
particular Thatcher and Blair – are better able to project their authority than
ones in which the government’s voice may be split between members of the
government coalition or even between President and Prime Minister, as in
France at times of cohabitation – whether between Mitterrand and Chirac
from 1986–1988, or Chirac and Jospin beginning in 1997.
tries that can generally be termed multi-actor often have areas which follow single-actor
patterns, in particular in unitary states such as the Netherlands and Sweden, where the
state has power to act.