The present article reports on a case study that focuses, comparatively, on the extent to which Romania’s Prime Minister Adrian Năstase and UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair reveal their intentions and thoughts in their investment speeches, by the use of the personal pronouns I and we. The number of occurrences of each of the two first person pronouns and the way in which they are used will be considered in an analysis that is both quantitative and qualitative. The overall aim of the comparative approach is to highlight how democracy is seen in the cases scrutinized, based on the activation by the speakers of the principle of cooperation in oral communication.

This paper makes reference to Grice’s conversational maxims and their applicability to Călin Popescu Tăriceanu’s investment speech as Prime Minister. As Grice (1975) considers that "the conversational meaning of the words used will determine what is implicated, besides helping to determine what is said" (1975: 44), I am interested in analysing the Prime Minister’s investment speech from this very perspective of the meaning that lies hidden behind what he actually says. To this aim, I attempt to establish whether the Gricean conversational maxims are followed or flouted in the speech selected.