Part Of Discourse Research Articles

The comparative politics of solidarity: Political party discourse across three welfare state regimes

AbstractParty political conflict plays an essential role in shaping welfare policies, while they are simultaneously also shaped by these policies. As political parties grapple with the wicked challenges of our times, new forms of solidarity and solidarity conflicts arise across welfare regimes. Despite their significance, these dynamics have not received much recent attention. Our article aims to fill this gap. Through content analysis of party manifestos, we compare the solidarity frames of political parties within and between three distinct welfare regimes—Flanders (Belgium), Sweden, and the United States. Our results confirm our expectations drawn from political feedback literature: while party ideology influences parties' solidarity frame preferences and solidarity conflicts between parties, these preferences and conflicts are also influenced by a welfare regime's societal solidarity norms. Our article highlights the value of analyzing solidarity frames and political solidarity conflicts within welfare‐state regimes to better understand welfare politics and policies.Related ArticlesKönig, Pascal D. 2015. “Moral Societal Renewal or Getting the Country Back to Work: Welfare State Culture as a Resource and a Constraint for Policy Discourse.” Politics & Policy 43(5): 647–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12130.Mioni, Michele, 2021. “The ‘Good Citizen’ as a ‘Respectable Worker:’ State, Unemployment, and Social Policy in the United Kingdom and Italy, 1930 to 1950.” Politics & Policy 49(4): 913–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12425.Wagle, Udaya R. 2014. “The Heterogeneity Politics of the Welfare State: Changing Population Heterogeneity and Welfare State Policies in High‐Income OECD Countries, 1980‐2005.” Politics & Policy 41(6): 947–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12053.

An Ideological Divide? Political Parties’ Discourse in Italy’s Migration Cooperation with Libya and Albania

ABSTRACT Italy’s migration agreements with Libya in 2017 and Albania in 2023 serve as crucial cases for investigating how political parties in Europe position themselves on immigration policy. By comparing parties across the Italian political spectrum, this research assesses whether they have articulated distinct stances on the externalisation of migration in the two selected cases. A qualitative analysis of parliamentary debates reveals two dominant logics in party discourse: a security logic and a rights-oriented logic. These two logics can cut across party lines, particularly in times of crisis, with frequent references to the European Union (EU) as both an arena for Italy’s influence and a source of legitimacy.

How much and why do political parties talk about terrorism?: evidence from the Basque Parliament (1980–2011)

ABSTRACT This article is focused on the weight that the issue of terrorism had among the discourse of the political parties sitting in the Basque Parliament between 1980 and 2011. In order to explore this question, transcripts of the most generalistic parliamentary debates were hand-coded and transformed into a quantitative variable. Results show that, from 1995 onward, when ETA began to attack politicians and other representatives of civil society, the Basque political elite started to pay more attention to the problem of terrorism in its discourse. Beyond this descriptive result, this study explores which other independent variables have mediated in the time that Basque MPs spent talking about terrorism. Thus, this article contributes to the study of how terrorist tactics influence the performance of the political elite.

Remembering according to national identity and ideology: influences of ideological positioning and national identities on the collective memory of the Civil War and dictatorship in Spain among youths / La memoria en función de la identidad nacional y la ideología: influencias del posicionamiento ideológico y de la identidad nacional en la memoria colectiva de la Guerra Civil y la dictadura

This research aimed to analyse the social representations of the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship among young people from different autonomous communities in Spain. A free-association exercise elicited by the words ‘Civil War’ and ‘Francoism’ was completed by 477 university students of the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Madrid. Participants were also asked about their national identity and ideological orientation. Lexical analysis was used to analyse their responses, and the results revealed that there is no shared narrative among participants. The results show that most of the discourses constructed for these times go hand in hand with the discourses of the current political parties in Spain, which seek to satisfy the basic needs of the groups and justify their decisions and goals. However, the intergenerational voice also appears in the results showing alternatives to the political and hegemonic narratives of the state. This has significant implications for future research and memory policies.

Duality in Political Discourse: A Critical Analysis of the Constitutional Union Party in Morocco

This article critically examines the discourse of the Constitutional Union party (CU) in Morocco, focusing on uncovering discursive duality within its political communication. Drawing on Critical Discourse Studies, the study adopts Van Dijk’s (2008) mental model approach to illuminate the party’s ideological perspectives and evaluate its consistency with declared liberal principles, specifically investigating how liberalism is cognitively reflected in CU’s discourse. Through analysis of CU’s discursive strategies claimed to embody ideological connotations across political, economic, and gender issues, the study identifies linguistic anomalies that point to a divide between liberal and non-liberal elements in the party’s disseminated discourse. This observed linguistic duality prompts critical inquiries into the consistency of the party’s ideological stance throughout a variety of contexts, a fact that stresses the necessity for further exploration of the social legitimacy of Moroccan political parties in relation to their circulated discourse.

Reflection of the Taiwan Issue in the Diplomatic Discourse of Russia, China and the United States at the Present Stage

The article deals with the actual problem of reflecting the Taiwan issue in the diplomatic discourses of Russia, China and the United States. The source of the analysis was the texts of the diplomats' speeches for 2023. The following diplomats and politicians' interviews, speeches, and statements were examined: US Secretary of State — A.J. Blinken, Chinese Foreign Ministers — Qing Gang and Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister — S.V. Lavrov. As part of the studied issue of diplomatic discourse, an article by Russian diplomat V.F. Pryakhin about the upcoming visit of E. Blinken to Beijing was also analyzed. For the authors, key characters and words used in the speeches of diplomats who carried emotional and expressive connotations were of immediate interest. Considering diplomatic discourse as a form of communication between diplomatic officials and studying it by analyzing the specific language used in spoken or written language of diplomats, allows us to notice even minor changes in relations between states. When, instead of the usual and accepted emotionally restrained style, diplomats begin to use emotionally colored phrases in speech, we can talk about an increase in tension in communication between states. The works of domestic and foreign scientists were analyzed in a brief historiographical review of the issue under consideration. The purpose of the analysis was to study how the attitude to the Taiwan issue affects the diplomatic discourse of the main parties to the conflict: China and the United States, as well as the diplomatic discourse of a third party — Russia. Content analysis as a research method was used. The results of the study are presented in the form of a table of the three countries’ diplomatic discourses’ main elements, as well as in the form of a graph of expressiveness in the texts of different speeches. It was revealed that the Russian and Chinese diplomatic discourses are the most expressive.

Euroscepticism in the Discourse of “Russian Parties” in Estonia

Introduction. The party-political system of Estonia, with traditionally Euro-optimistic elites leading it, was previously characterized by the presence of a number of so-called “Russian political parties”, which traditionally professed Euroscepticism and criticized the European Union as whole or certain areas of its activities. The purpose of the article is to determine the specific features of the Eurosceptic party discourse of “Russian parties” in Estonia. Materials and Methods. The information basis of the paper consisted of the results obtained using a combination of the comparative method (method of comparative analysis) and the method of discourse analysis. A single case study design was chosen for the paper. The data obtained as a result of using the discourse analysis method made it possible to study the indicators of the Eurosceptic discourse of “Russian parties” and process their programs, manifestos, electoral platforms, as well as statements of their high-ranking representatives. Results. It was revealed that the use of Euroscepticism by the analyzed “Russian parties” when targeting the Russian-speaking diaspora of the state in a number of cases (for example, in case of the Estonian Center Party) has shown some efficacy, allowing it to mobilize the electorate among Russian-speaking citizens. However, it was found that for small marginal “Russian parties” in Estonia this did not demonstrate productivity and benefit, since such efforts did not bring them a significant number of votes in elections at various levels. Most of them, adhering to Eurosceptic protest declarations, were never able to take part in “mainstream politics” of Estonia; thereby they failed to implement their Eurosceptic political agenda. Discussion and Conclusion. The results allow us to conclude that a specific characteristic of the Eurosceptic party discourse of the majority of “Russian parties” in Estonia is its focus on pragmatism for ethnic Russian residents living in this state in the form of concrete results that are useful for them: the desire to improve the existing discriminatory position of ethnic Russian population in Estonia through appealing to Brussels, to solve the problem of so called non-citizens, and, finally, to establish good relations between Estonia and its eastern neighbor state – Russia. The results of this study can find application in the academic activities of universities in our country, may be of interest to political and regional scientists studying political processes in the Baltic States.

The activation of nationalist attitudes: how voters respond to far-right parties’ campaigns

ABSTRACT The rise of far-right parties represents one of the main challenges for European democracies. Previous research has shed light both on their electoral strategies, and on the nationalist attitudes of their electorates. Yet, the causal mechanism by which far-right party discourse activates voters’ preferences is still unclear. This paper revisits the literature on campaign effects in the context of challenger party entry, and argues that the activation of attitudes on ‘wedge issues’, such as immigration and European integration, is the outcome of a process of learning and partisan updating. The empirical analyses focus on the electoral breakthrough of far-right parties in Britain and Germany, and rely on three-wave panel surveys to address reverse causation. Results show that voters update their vote intentions in light of their Eurosceptic and xenophobic attitudes only when they learn the policy positions of the far-right party vis-à-vis the other parties. These findings shed light on the nature of far-right party support, set a scope condition for research on priming and persuasion in election campaigns, and contribute to normative debates about the functioning of electoral democracy.

Silent responsiveness: How public opinion affects party discourse on wedge issues

AbstractHow does public opinion affect political discourse on issues that parties struggle to deal with? Although scholars tend to analyse party–voter linkages in terms of policy positions, parties can respond to public opinion by changing both the positions and the salience of their policy agenda. Based on original time‐series data of party discourse and voter preferences in France, Italy and the United Kingdom (1992–2016), this paper analyses how mainstream parties have changed their political discourse on European integration in response to an increasingly Eurosceptic public. Results show that mainstream parties have adapted their positions to changes in public opinion and have at the same time deemphasized European Union issues in their discourse as the public grew Eurosceptic. Parties did not talk more about Europe even when they followed the tides of public opinion. These findings challenge our current understanding of party responsiveness, have implications for theories of party competition, and contribute to debates on the legitimacy of the European project.

From Patronage to Commodification: The Urban Policies of the True Path Party in The Neoliberal Era

In the study, the urban policies of the centre-right in the struggle to establish neoliberal hegemony in Turkey, which became clear in the 1980s, were examined by focusing on the True Path Party (TPP). Thus, it is aimed to reveal the change in the urban policies of the Party in the neoliberal process. In order to achieve the stated purpose, historical comparative research method was used in the study. It is thought that a comparative examination of the period from the establishment of the Party to Demirel's Presidency and the period when Çiller was Chairman of the Party can reveal the discontinuities, dilemmas and continuities experienced between the two periods in the Party's land policies, depending on the neoliberal perspective. It has been concluded that in the Party's discourses about the city in the period until Demirel's Presidency, it highlighted the patronage-based populist policies that were widely implemented during the Justice Party period, rather than the commodification process implemented by Motherland Party. During the Çiller period, TPP's urban policies went hand in hand with capital accumulation based on marketization and were based on the exploitation of non-commodified urban spaces, similar to the Özal period. However, while Özal was able to gain the consent of both the urban poor and the capital for a long time in sharing urban rent with the policies he implemented, Çiller could not achieve the balance between these two interest groups competing on urban land with the new property and zoning regulations she implemented. Thus, Çiller broke the Party away from Demirel's discourse, which made abundant references to welfare policies, and this caused the support of the urban poor, whose importance was increasingly increasing in the transforming social structure of the country, to shift towards new political movements. As a matter of fact, the Party lost the support of the most urban voters among its voter base and could not win any metropolitan municipality in the 1999 local elections.

Meşruiyet Arayışından Meşruiyet Kaybına: 1980’den 2000’e DYP-Ordu İlişkileri

This study focuses on the True Path Party-Army relations from the birth of the TPP until the period when Çiller left the Party chairmanship. Thus, it is aimed to reveal how the Party's national popular policies have changed as a result of its relations with the Army. In order to achieve the stated aim, historical comparative research method was used in the study. It is thought that a comparative examination of the period from the founding of the Party to Demirel's Presidency and the period when Çiller was the Chairman of the Party can reveal the discussions, dilemmas and continuities between the two periods in the Party's relations with the Army. As a matter of fact, the TPP's most important national popular move to expand its voter base since its foundation was based on the discourse of democracy. The rhetoric of 'resistance against military tutelage' was placed at the center of the Party's discourse on democracy. The Party's attitude towards the civilian administration's dominance over the Army in the period leading up to Demirel's presidency constitutes an important example of the civilianization efforts in Turkish political life. During the Çiller period, this effort was replaced by an essentialist nationalist understanding adorned with the themes of 'flag, azan and land'. In this period, the Party went from a period in which it strengthened its legitimacy through the Army to a period in which it lost legitimacy through the Army.

The Concept of Political Correctness in Political Process of the Modern United Kingdom

The concept of political correctness is essencial for the modern Western political process. The aim of the article is to find out its role and place in the political discourse of modern right-wing political organizations. The case of the British right-wing radical political party «Britain First» can be explained, firstly, by the popularity of the ideas of political correctness in UK, and, secondly, by the importance of criticism of the semantic content and symbolic nature of political correctness for ideologists the British far-right. The results of the study show that criticism of the ideas of political correctness occupies one of the central places in the ideological discourse of the right-wing radical party in UK, as well as in the rhetoric of both major British politicians and public perception. To sum up, it is worth noting that modern right-wing radical political parties, of which «Britain First» can rightfully be considered a vivid example, which actively, instrumentally and competently highlights this issues in their discourse. They realize the importance of transformation of their ideology and complementing its nationalistic the core of the agenda, which, in one way or another, affects the social, cultural and political processes in modern European states.

The response of the European parties to the transformation of the socio-political cleavages

ABSTRACT From a bottom-up perspective, cleavage theory links the socio-economic trends existing in the political community with the shape acquired by party politics. Globalization and European integration impacted European society, creating novel socio-economic divides and bringing new social, cultural and economic issues into the political discussion. The impact of the novel cleavage over the pre-existent societal socio-political fractures acquires a central role in the study of European Union politicization. Deploying critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse-historical approach (DHA), this study aims to comprehend how the emergence of a novel cleavage has influenced the discourse of the mainstream European parties. The manifestos of the European Christian democratic, socialist and liberal parties from the last three European Parliament elections are analyzed to assess the contemporary relevance of the left-right political competition in a scenario characterized by the salience gained by transnational issues and the electoral success of populist elites.

Türkiye’deki Muhalefet Partilerinin Suriyeli Mültecilere yönelik Söylemleri: Güvenlikleştirme ve Geri Gönderme

3.6 million Syrian refugees who were forced to move to Turkey since the initiation of the civil war in Syria in 2011 have had a significant impact on Turkish politics. While the governing Justice and Development Party has fluctuated between religiously-based humanitarianism and securitization discourses, opposition parties have prioritized the issue in response to growing public discontent. Focusing on the recent repatriation debate, this article analyzes the attitudes and discourses of opposition parties towards the Syrian refugees. By drawing on the Copenhagen School securitization theory, the study examines the discourses of four opposition parties under the dimensions of economy, culture and security. The article concludes that while Republican People’s Party, Good Party and Victory Party securitize the issue to varying degrees, Peoples’ Democratic Party does not.

The Theme of Historical Memory in the Discourse and Practice of Parliamentary Parties in Russia: Federal and Regional Levels

Introduction. An integral part of the general historical memory of Russia as the state-successor of the Soviet Union is the memory about the Soviet past. In the light of the intensification of attempts by the influential international actors to falsify and revise the modern history, the creation of its integral picture, equivalent and non-controversial for the authorities and society, is of particular relevance. The purpose of the study is to determine the specifics of the representation of the topic of historical memory by the parliamentary parties of the Russian Federation at the present stage. Materials and Methods. The key research methods are comparative, synchronous analysis, traditional and discourse analysis of documents. The most important materials are normative legal acts and conceptual and strategic documents of the Russian Federation, program documents of parliamentary parties of Russia, information posted on their official websites, as well as in the System of Legislative Support. Totally they made it possible to verify the principled positions and probable directions of the formation of the state policy of the memory of Russia, taking into account the need to implement the continuity of the national statehood. Results. Similar and distinctive features in the interpretation of the Soviet past in the party discourse, semantic images and plots are revealed. The main initiatives and actions of the Russian parliamentary parties and their regional branches in the Republic of Mordovia for the preservation of historical memory are characterized; their participation in the development and implementation of historical and patriotic projects is shown. The party practices are emphasized in the plane of protecting the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War and the feat of the Soviet people. The predominant activity of the “old” parliamentary parties in the area under consideration has been found. Discussion and Conclusion. The conducted research has demonstrated the ambiguity of the status of parliamentary parties as mnemonic actors and articulates significant gaps in the interpretation and promotion of positively filled memorial narratives in relation to the Soviet past. Its results can be useful to public authorities and public associations of various levels, contribute to the development and implementation of appropriate decisions and strategies for political positioning, strategic national priorities of the Russian Federation.

The Use of Sovereignist Claims in Election Campaigns in France and Italy: Different Twins?

AbstractIn this article we examine the phenomenon of the use of sovereignist claims, not only by nationalist or populist leaders but also by actors who would not normally fall into these categories. We zoom in on two different cases: France and Italy. Through an analysis of Twitter we examine the discourse of the political leadership in election campaigns. We document some interesting commonalities, as well as some differences, concerning the emphasis on sovereignist claims. We produce an account of the patterns of use of sovereignist issues, we identify which parties/leaders have been the main promoters of sovereignist claims and how their competitors have responded to this challenge. Finally, we analyse the main drivers of sovereignist party discourses. Through regression analysis we show how, both in France and in Italy, the sovereignist supply has been influenced by ideology and citizens' demands.

Left-Wing Populism and Environmental Issues: An Analysis of La France Insoumise’s ‘Popular Environmentalism’

This article proposes to explore the interaction between populism and environmentalism in the discourse of populist radical left parties, through a case study of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s parties, Parti de gauche (2008–2016) and La France insoumise (from 2016). While an emerging literature primarily investigated the populist framing of populist radical right parties’ climate (sceptic) discourse, the article analyses how a populist radical left party incorporates environmental issues into its agenda and the extent to which environmentalism and populism concretely interweave. Using mixed-methods, we first show that the logics of party competition and the growing salience of environmental issues led La France insoumise to gradually develop an ambitious green agenda. We then show that there is evidence for a populism/environmentalism nexus that could be defined as ‘green populism’. La France insoumise’s ecosocialist ideology combines to anti-elitism and people-centrism to blame the environmental crisis on the ‘oligarchy’ and to promote a green transition that would protect the people.

Populism and emotions: a comparative study using Machine Learning

AbstractThis study aims to unpack the mobilization of emotions in the political discourse of populist and non-populist parties and above all, across ‘varieties of populism’ (right wing vs. left wing or hybrid). Is there an empirical connection between emotions and populism? Are all types of populisms alike with regards to the emotional appeals within their political discourse? Focusing on Italy as a crucial case for populist communication and using a novel methodological approach based on supervised machine learning, it systematically investigates the intensity and trends of specific emotions in political discourses (institutional and informal, i.e. leaders’ speeches) of all Italian political parties over the last 20 years, for a corpus of more than 13,000 sentences analysed. The findings confirm that (i) populists tend to use more (and a broader repertoire of) emotional appeals than non-populist parties; however (ii) overall, there is an increase in the use of these appeals in the Italian political party discourse over time, especially in terms of negative emotions; and, most importantly, (iii) different types of emotions are mobilized by different types of populisms. Right wing populism mainly uses negative emotions while left wing or hybrid populism employs positive emotional appeals. The communication arena (party manifestoes vs. speeches) nevertheless does matter in the degree and types of emotions mobilized by political actors. This study identifies important implications for research on emotional appeals in politics, populist communication and political campaigning, and populist contagion from an emotion-based perspective.

Voter’s Perception of Political Messages Against the Elite Classes in Spain: A Quasi‐Experimental Design

Demonization constitutes the construction of a simplified symbolic reality through the prism of hatred. The elite classes have been framed within the discourse of far-left parties in Spain to make them antagonistic to their target audience. In this area, research tends to use explicit measures, but few have used implicit measures. This article aims to assess both types of voter perceptions of anti-elite class messages in Spain. Eighty Spanish voters belonging to left- and right-wing ideologies participated in this study. Implicit attitudes were measured through the implicit association test. The result shows that demonization is deepening in various layers of society in order to provoke a confrontation with the elite classes. Social networks have emerged as a means of social control, but they are not perceived as such by the subjects but rather as an additional informational or purely propagandistic element. But even among the public who are aware of the latter, the more their perception of the elite classes is limited to demonization, the more extreme their social vision is.

Repercussions of Psychological Warfare in the Kurdish Party Newspapers

This research is part of the descriptive studies. It describes (psychological warfare) in the discourse of Kurdish political parties press.One of the most important goals of this research is to show the psychological warfare inside the political parties press. This research gets to a conclusion of the fact that(disinformation ) is at the top of psychological warfare which is about %41. The second one is (propaganda) which is about %27. And (Rumors) comes as the third one by %26.On the other hand, the research shows the sample studies that have been used as psychological warfare against activists and protesters. On the other hand, during election campaigns the Kurdish political party’s newspapers have used the psychological warfare against one another. The psychological warfare has been used against all the political parties that have been part of the government or an opposition.