Hardworking Families

The phrase "Hardworking families" or "working families" is an example of a glittering generality in contemporary political discourse. It is used in the politics of the United Kingdom and of the United States, and was heavily used by the political parties in the campaign of the United Kingdom general election, 2005 and the Australian federal election, 2007 where the Rudd Labor Party used the term extensively.

Emerging from some British newspapers around 1995, the first explicit analysis of the phrase in a mainstream media was done by the BBC in 2005.

• It has the positive connotations of its direct meaning, of "families that work hard" or "families whose members work hard" (cf. the Protestant work ethic), whilst leaving the exact meaning to the listener.
• It means different things to different people, connoting different sectors of society according to the political bias of the listener. To a listener with a right-wing bias, a "hardworking family" would simply be a family, at any level, that does not comprise benefit recipients or the unemployed; whereas to a listener with a left-wing bias, a "hardworking family" would be one including wage earners on the lower rung of the socioeconomic ladder who are unable to rise higher without some state support.

• Politicians use the phrase in a vague manner, with the intent that the listeners, by dint of the positive connotations, perceive the politician to be referring to them; and with the intent that listeners agree that anything to the benefit of "hardworking families" is inarguably right and anything to the detriment of "hardworking families" is inarguably wrong.