AN ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL ELITE’S RHETORIC DURING ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

This study explore and analyse rhetoric of political leaders of some selected parties of Pakistan during election campaign. For this purpose, speeches of political leaders of the three mainstream political parties were studied from sources including YouTube, TV shows and tweets. Content analysis method was used to analyse the data. Various forms, modes and types of rhetoric have been identified which were subsequently contextualized with the speeches, advertisements and rhetoric of the political leaders of the selected parties. Four themes including argumentations, storytelling, credit claiming and partisan cueing were extracted from the selected speeches. It was found that political elites and party leaders are so wisely manage to generate arguments, counter arguments, illustration and storytelling. The study also found that elites seems very justifiable by telling the stories and arguments but later on there is no substantial evidence in the form of performance, success and public service. The study concludes that the rhetoric used by party leaders are mostly directed towards political opponents and party leaders of other parties and less focused on the public policies and programs of general interest. Keywords: Rhetoric, Arguments, Leaders, Elites, Party