Prime Ministers and Political Narratives for Policy Change: Towards a Heuristic

Political narratives play a central role in modern governance. They explain a government's driving principles, and underpin their ability to implement policy change. Rhetoric is the tool that Prime Ministers use to articulate and frame political narratives to support their policy prescriptions. This article examines four case studies of how Prime Ministers in Westminster systems have used political rhetoric to create narratives capable of making a persuasive case for policy change. Common themes are explored to provide the basis for a heuristic that encapsulates contemporary prime ministerial practice in articulating political narratives for policy change. © The Policy Press, 2012.