Parliamentary Discourse Research Articles

Mass polarisation: identification with parliamentary discourses and psychological factors

ABSTRACT Ideological polarisation research has gained prominence due to its growing presence in established democracies and its associated negative consequences. This study aimed to explore the identification with polarised parliamentary discourses in a Portuguese sample and its relationship with psychological factors. Results revealed the absence of mass ideological polarisation and a greater leftist identification. Participants who identified more with the right-wing evidenced greater identity fusion with the country and dogmatism, and less tendency to ruminate and to be verbally aggressive. Participants who identified more with the left-wing showed less identity fusion with the country, less dogmatism and greater capacity for empathy, rumination, tolerance to ambiguity, and verbal aggression. Innovative results were also found on the relationship between greater left-wing identification, identity fusion with the country and verbal aggression.

‘Nesting Dragon, Soldier, Spy’: Shaping the Narrative on China Through Huawei in UK Parliamentary Debates

ABSTRACT This article examines the controversy surrounding 5G in the United Kingdom preceding the decision to remove Huawei from the UK network. We analyse UK parliamentary debates from 2012–2020 against the backdrop of tensions between the United States and China in the race for global leadership in 5G technology. We identify four principal themes in the UK parliamentary discourse: Huawei as innovator and collaborator; a threat to national security; as undermining UK relations with its allies; and embodying opposing values. We argue that the narrative shifts in the UK government’s position towards Huawei correspond to Conservative Party internal conflicts on how to navigate the UK’s relationship with Huawei in response to geopolitical pressures. We situate this changing narrative within a political sinologism that is used to shape a negative view of Huawei and China.

Walking the talk? The educational agenda of the Austrian populist radical right: From discourse to policymaking

This paper explores the educational policy positions in programmatic and parliamentary discourse by the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and their actual policy measures implemented in executive office. The FPÖ is one of the most successful populist radical right parties (PRRPs) in Western Europe and also served in two periods of government with the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) (2000–2005; 2017–2019), providing a fruitful record over time. Our analysis over three decades (1990–2018) reveals that even though it’s not a highly salient policy issue, education policy has indeed become an ideological battleground for the FPÖ. At large, it uses education policy claims to substantiate the ideological core pillars of PRRPs, yet it also delivers on many of these claims once in government. This is particularly true for its culturalist claims, which trigger an increasing convergence by the centre-right partner. In contrast, the always-existing congruence of redistributive claims results in several policy decisions in both periods of government.

ОБРАЗ РОССИЙСКОГО ПАНСЛАВИЗМА В ГЕРМАНСКИХ ПАРЛАМЕНТСКИХ ДЕБАТАХ ПОСЛЕДНЕЙ ТРЕТИ XIX ВЕКА

The main topic of this research is the image of Russian pan-Slavism in German parliamentary discourse. The last third of the 19th century was the time of dramatic change in Russian-German relations – from an alliance to the membership in opposing military blocs. The driving forces of this deterioration were not only international politics and economy. Public opinion, especially in Germany, also played an important part in this process. Not entitled to take part in foreign policy decision making immediately, German political parties were able to influence public opinion on international issues. Therefore, the study of parliamentary debates makes it possible to understand the cooling of Russian-German relations. The sources of this research are minutes of parliament meetings from 1871 to 1895. Qualitative content analysis was chosen as the most appropriate method for this research. Main finding of this research id the existence of a single image of Russian pan-Slavism in German political parties from Conservatives to Left Liberals and Social Democrats. The use of this image was determined by the particular topic and corresponding interests of the party, but its key features remained the same. Pan-Slavism was perceived and presented as a powerful force in Russian society that was able even to overrule the emperor and to dictate political decision. This force was invariably hostile to Germany and constantly warmongering. Within the framework of this interpretation, the deterioration of bilateral relations was perceived by German society as a natural consequence of the activities of Russian pan-Slavists.

The language and motivations of expertise in political discourse

The study aims to explore how language elements of specialised and political communication are represented in parliamentary discourse. Within the ParlaMint corpus, we examine Hungarian parliamentary speeches between 2020 and 2022 on the ‘KATA’ (specific tax of small taxpayer businesses). The specialised terms, terms used in standard language, sentiment and attitude values are analysed. Results show that there is a significant difference in term use and the sentence sentiments between the different discourse participants (policy actors, opposition, governing party). There are only a few emotionless speeches, and no large differences in the proportion of terms and emotions are observed. The results can be relevant for studies on populist communication, the relationship between technocracy and democracy, and the methodological aspects of computer-assisted discourse analysis. The paper also outlines future orientations for research, including extended thematic analysis and investigation of contextual shifts in the actual meaning of terms within political discourse.

The future is (ever) promising: Elected representatives’ promises in routine parliamentary discourse

This study investigates how elected representatives make promises to the electorate as part of their routine, everyday parliamentary discourse. Departing from the dominant focus on pre-election pledges in existing scholarship, we examine how representatives’ practices of making promises vary systematically over time (before/after elections/mid-term), by government role (government/opposition), party membership (catch-all/identity-based parties), and addressed electorate (inclusive/exclusive). Drawing upon research in speech acts, political discourse, and corpus pragmatics, we employ manual and computational text analysis on session transcripts from the Israeli parliament to identify variations in representatives’ use of direct or indirect action promises ( N = 709), expressing different orientations of commitment. Documenting that promises continue to be prevalent after elections (especially among coalition members), we argue that the practices of making promises fulfill a critical role in representation that extends far beyond the election campaign, maintaining continuous accountability throughout the electoral cycle.

Parliamentary Debate Dynamics: Understanding the Paradigm of Young Parliamentarians in the 12th Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review Discourse

Young parliamentarians play a dynamic role in shaping Malaysia’s economic trajectory, especially during parliamentary sittings such as the mid-term review of the 12th Malaysia Plan. This study explores the dynamics of parliamentary debates qualitatively, scrutinising the contributions of young parliamentarians through discourse analysis, utilising the Deliberative Quality Index (DQI) to analyse speeches during the 12th Malaysia Plan Mid-term Review Special Parliamentary Seating. Findings showcased a consistent range of the DQI’s scores. Still, interestingly, no clear correlation between educational background and political exposure was evident, suggesting a complex array of factors influencing deliberative quality. The thematic analysis highlighted a priority towards food security and future-ready talent, contrasted against a noticeable unfamiliarity with the MADANI concept. For a more nuanced understanding of intergenerational collaboration in legislative discussions, this study advocates a holistic approach in future research. This exploration into contrasting perspectives and debating styles between young and seasoned parliamentarians could pave the way for a more inclusive, progressive, and forward-thinking parliamentary discourse in Malaysia, fostering a blend of youthful innovation and seasoned wisdom.

Seni Helah dan Perbahasan Belanjawan 2024: Analisis Pragmatik

The integrity of the administration of any governmentlargely depends on relevant and clear financial policies, for instance, Short-Term Plans or Annual Budgets. Periodically, the Annual Budget, the most important component of Parliamentary discourse, will be tabled for discussion, either to gain support or face criticism in both Houses of Representatives. Certainly, discussions and debates require politicians to master the art of rhetoric, analysis, and inference to navigate the dynamics of political legitimacy. For this purpose, the important document known as the Hansard serves as a substantial source, recording the strategies and art of Evasive Language in challenging-defending policies, addressing-mitigating issues, and strengthening-undermining the image that determines the integrity of the legitimacy of both the Governmentand and Opposition. However, previous corpus studies by Hansard on the topic of Evasive Response have focused only on the structural forms of debate. Therefore, employing three Pragmatic models, namely Harris’s Framework of Respons (1991), Thomas’s Notion of Implicator (1995), and Claymen’s Dimension of Resistance (2012), this qualitative study aims to analyse more complex, intense, and natural debate sessions, specifically the policy debate on the 2024 Budget. The findings reveal that all three types of Responses have some distinctive features, and their selection correlates with the scale of their impact on the image of the Government-Opposition. In addition, adhering to the Gricean Maxims (1975), the configuration of Evasive Language behavior is more easily defined and justified. Lastly, the discourse background at the policy level is more heterogeneous, thereby enriching the performative nature of Evasive Language.

Субстантивные предложения как средство выражения британскими политиками суждений о своей идентичности (на материале стенограмм заседаний парламента Великобритании за 2020 г.)

The paper examines the semantic-structural characteristics of substantive sentences used by British politicians when verbalizing their identity judgements in parliamentary discourse. Attention is focused on the substantive sentences with the structure “S (Pr) + P (Vfcop + N)” implementing the proposition P(x) with the semantics “attribution of a feature to the subject of judgment”. The aim of the study is to determine what view of the speaker as an identity holder is formed by means of these sentences, depending on their semantic-structural properties. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it identifies and describes types of substantive sentences that differ in their semantic-structural characteristics and reveals their correlation with the verbalization of certain information about the speaker’s identity. As a result of the study, it is found that in English substantive sentences of different types a different format of the speaker’s perception is created: the speaker can act as a representative of a certain category (group) of people, as a single whole with a community of people sharing the same characteristics, as an owner of rather vague properties and characteristics inherent in all members of the group to which the speaker himself belongs.

Navigating Conflicting Incentives: Discursive Strategies of Political Parties in Germany’s Cooperative Federalism

Abstract Federal systems create complex institutional settings that foster and encourage cooperation while also enabling self-serving and even opportunistic political behavior. Focusing on parliamentary discourses, we argue that political parties can navigate these conflicting incentives skillfully, employing a set of five distinct discursive strategies that integrate both the need for cooperation and the possibility of self-interest. Leveraging a qualitative content analysis of 212 German parliamentary debates and 4,524 manually coded statements, we demonstrate that the use of these discursive strategies is shaped by parties’ level of integration into federal institutions. The data reveal that parties which are more strongly involved in intergovernmental bodies uphold a more cooperative discourse, while refraining from confrontational strategies toward federal institutions and actors. We also find that the linkage between the vertically integrated party system, which incentivizes co-partisans to stick together across levels and constituent units, and multiparty coalition governments, counteracts federal blame games.

Antagonistic framing and the social exclusion of Rohingya in Myanmar’s parliamentary discourses (2011–2021)

ABSTRACT Antagonistic frames about minority groups are hard to dislodge. Their persistence limits the scope for conflict resolution in divided societies. The parliament that surfaced in Myanmar during a decade of opening (2011–2021) presents a case for studying how emerging legislators develop strategies for minority exclusion. Through a frame analysis of parliamentary discourses focused on the Rohingya communities across two legislatures, we reconstruct how lawmakers framed such a vulnerable group during plenary debates. We detected five adversarial frames deployed by lawmakers regardless of their ethnoreligious background or party affiliation: (1) denial, (2) invasion, (3) inhospitality, (4) racist othering, (5) sexualized demonization. We found a clear alignment with popular master frames deeply embedded in Myanmar society. We further argue that such antagonistic framing developed in parliament served two purposes: it delegitimized the Rohingya as an ‘outgroup’ in official discourse while seeking to homogenize the rest of society despite entrenched ethnoreligious divisions.

Politicians’ Communicative Behavioural Patterns: A Study into British Parliamentary Discourses of 2010-2022

In recent years, linguopragmaticians have sought to make predictions as to why and how politicians resort to certain communicative behaviours, hence the focus of linguistic research. Drawing upon parliamentary discourses of Conservative Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Labor Party leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer, this article aims to develop a new approach to naming communicative behavioral patterns of modern British politicians. The commonality of domestic political tasks faced by the politicians, namely the UK’s exit from the European Union, environmental agenda, migration reform, healthcare system troubles, have predetermined the choice of certain types of ‘communicative personality’ and, consequently, a selection of lexical means used by the politicians during parliamentary debates. The algorithm for typologizing the communicative behavior of politicians includes creating a corpus of utterances and analyzing it through the content analysis program Sketch Engine. A comparison of the most frequent lexical units used by a politician in given communicative situations have made it possible to identify prevailing types of ‘communicative personality’ and key intentions realized in the course of political communication.

Navigating pandemic waves: Consensus, polarisation and pluralism in the Finnish parliament during COVID-19

This article studies how the COVID crisis affected polarisation, politicisation and consensus in Finnish parliamentary discourse, a case in which we expect pluralist political institutions and culture to mitigate polarisation. In addition to the empirical contribution, we add to the theory of polarisation by drawing from Chantal Mouffe’s theory of plural democracy to argue that the opposite of polarisation may take the form of a depoliticised consensus or a pluralism of legitimate positions (‘agonism’). Furthermore, we apply Norman and Isabela Fairclough’s political discourse analysis to studying polarisation qualitatively, arguing that scrutiny of argumentative premises enables assessment of how profound certain political conflicts are. Studying 485 parliamentary speeches given in 2020–2021, we argue that a morally charged consensus imperative with nationalistic overtones quickly developed in Spring 2020, and pluralism gradually re-emerged later. The article highlights that while polarisation can threaten democracy, so can moralisation and enforced consensus.

Государство как ценность: репрезентация образа будущего в речах российских парламентариев

The article is devoted to studying the representation of state as value in the speeches of the deputies of the State Duma from the viewpoint of the image of Russia’s future. As a starting point, the authors used the pentabasis model, where the image of the future is presented in the form of five elements, one of which is the state, interpreted via trust in political institutions. The theoretical basis of the study was the concept of Stein Rokkan and his followers, according to which the state formation involves building socio-cultural boundaries that indicate belonging to a political community. The empirical basis was the transcripts of speeches of deputies on current socio-economic, political and other issues at the plenary sessions of the State Duma of VII— VIII convocations. The research was carried out by the method of discourse analysis. The obtained results clearly demonstrate that national parliamentarians are deeply concerned about the problem of trust. Although decisions on the most fundamental issues are made via consensus, deputies feel a lack of trust among certain groups of the population, which requires them to exert additional efforts to justify their initiatives. The topics they most often turn to include welfare state, center-regions relations, and economic development. At the same time, they rarely directly touch upon the prospects of domestic political institutions, as well as the topic of the image of the future in general, which may be explained by both a shortage of strategic ideas and external restrictions on parliamentary discourse.

Debating the Populist Pariah: Changing Party Dynamics and Elite Rhetoric in the Swedish Riksdag

Radical right populist parties have often been treated as “pariahs,” being excluded from coalition politics in parliamentary democracies. We argue that negative rhetoric targeted at radical right populist parties in legislative debates is used by the established parties to distance themselves from such parties and that the incentives to do so depend on the political context. Using sentiment analysis of speeches in the Swedish Riksdag from 2010 to 2022, we find that rhetoric targeted toward the radical right Sweden Democrats is more negative than speech concerning other parties on average. We also find that this negative rhetoric declined over time, particularly from the center-right parties, as the formerly marginal Sweden Democrats gained more seats and became a potential partner for cooperation. Our analysis demonstrates how tracking parliamentary discourse provides insights into changing party dynamics. Our findings suggest that, as the prospects for populists' pariah status change, rhetoric from established parties reflects this shifting role in party politics, with enduring negativity accompanied by reduced hostility among the center-right parties with the greatest potential for cooperation.

A fence of opportunity

Abstract This article deconstructs the parliamentary discourses regarding two migratory incidents in Ceuta, May 2021, and Melilla, June 2022, when hundreds of people attempted to cross the fences that separate Morocco from Spain. Most of them were immediately deported, many injured, and several died. This analysis compares the density of populist, anti-populist, re-bordering, and de-bordering references in forty-five speeches at the Spanish Congress regarding both tragic events. Vox speakers articulate a distinct discourse that instrumentalises these incidents to convey a sense of existential crisis and to (re)define a populist right-wing political identity based on moral hierarchies, a homogenising conception of society and the exclusion of a dangerous “other.” Meanwhile some parties applied a populist logic to promote de-bordering views and others combined re-bordering and de-bordering claims without imposing a populist frame. This was an opportunity to exhibit a progressive sense of place in borderlands contrasting with Vox’s reactionary one.

Signalling digression in Spanish and English: Evidence from parliamentary discourse

Digression is a discourse function that is identifiable and distinct from other similar functional strategies, and varies cross-linguistically. This paper investigates the way speakers of Spanish and English digress from their main discourse topics and how these transitions are marked. Once digression is defined by the proposal of four features considered to be inherent in this concept, the paper focuses on so-called 'digression formulating phrases', recurrent expressions which make explicit reference to the digression and signal that a new direction with respect to topic is proposed. The paper thus adopts a less common than the usual approach to discourse coherence and digression, whose literature has largely focused on discourse markers. The dataset, extracted from a corpus of parliamentary discourse, is analysed in an attempt to address two research questions. I investigate, first, the frequency and distribution of the selected digression formulating phrases in the two languages, and discern which of the two contexts of digression (i.e. beginnings and ends) is more highly marked, and, second, their use in connection to aspects such as syntactic configuration and position, and co-occurring features of semantic and pragmatic meaning. The contrastive perspective adds precision and richness to the treatment of digression.

A comparison of British and German parliamentary discourses on science diplomacy over time

AbstractHow do members of parliament of different political parties discuss ‘science diplomacy’ – broadly speaking all activities at the intersection of science and foreign policy – on the parliamentary floor over time? We address this question against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and analyse 72 speeches on science and Russia from the German and British parliament between February 2014 and December 2022. Our analysis reveals similarities and differences in how science diplomacy is discussed in the German Bundestag and the British House of Commons, how party views on science diplomacy in relation to Russia differ and how said views change over time. In so doing, our study shows that national science and policy ecosystems with their specific institutions and actors shape science diplomacy debates, including in times of war.

Role-theoretic discourse analysis of German security policy: a case of German parliamentary debate on the mission in Afghanistan.

This article combines linguistic discourse analysis with role theory to create a role-theoretic discourse analysis framework for German security policy. To illustrate this, we employ topos analysis on 30 plenary minutes of parliamentary debates regarding the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, conducted by German Members of Parliament between 2001 and 2014. We interpret their perception of Germany's roles in light of key behavioral norms related to German security policy. The parliamentary discourse, shaped by topoi, sets the stage for decisions on German military operations abroad. The use of topoi is influenced by dominant thought patterns, particularly the perspective on Germany's role in security policy held by the political elite. Political decisions, in turn, reflect behavioral preferences guided by these viewpoints. Our research reveals how changes in German security policy are mirrored in the discourse. This discourse is structured around five categories of topoi for legitimizing or delegitimizing military operations abroad: necessity, obligation, self-interest, capability and preparedness, and solution. An evaluation of the use of topoi through the lens of role theory indicates that perceptions of Germany's role have evolved over time, encompassing roles such as a "civilian power," a "normal state," and an "agenda-setting role" in sync with its foreign military engagements.

Rhetoric of natural law in the public discourse of Benedict XVI

The paper examines the rhetorical imagination of the Catholic speaker in public discourse on the basis of the parliamentary discourses of Pope Benedict XVI. According to this researcher, Pope Benedict XVI’s rhetorical model in the speeches is an extended version of Michael J. Hostetler’s critical distance model supported by the translation idea of Jurgen Habermas. This conclusion is reached by analysis of the constituent elements of the arguments in three parliamentary speeches given by Pope Benedict XVI. James B. Freeman’s updated version of Stephen Toulmin’s argumentation model is used to discern the constituent element of the argument.