Rhetoric in the creation of social reality: Radical consciousness and whig strategy in parliamentary reform

Abstract

Whig reformers, while advocating parliamentary reform, perpetuated the class‐based image of the lower orders as distinctly inferior to the governing classes. This made it imperative for radical reformers to enlarge their rhetorical scope, to address the issue of lower‐class self perception as well as the apparent issue of political reform. “Orator” Hunt's speech at Spa Fields in 1816 illustrates radical efforts both to intimidate their rulers and to restructure the images of themselves held by the lower classes. Radical strategy incorporated comparison and contrast and villification of authority to a large degree, and may be seen as an attempt to create social reality rather than as mere “demagogery. “