Politically Speaking: A Worldwide Examination of Language Used in the Public Sphere

The characteristics, nature, and content of the language used in the public sphere of various Western and non-Western societies are examined in this collection of essays. They also analyze the functions language plays in the polity and the link between culture, political culture, and the language that politicians and the public use in their symbolic interaction.

This work details and examines the characteristics, nature, and content of the language used in the public sphere of various Western and non-Western societies; the functions language plays in the polity; and the link between culture, political culture, and the language that politicians and other elites, as well as the public, use in their symbolic interaction. The essays describe and analyze the topic of political language from different perspectives―political science, psychology, philosophy, sociology, gender studies, economics, religious, public administration, mass communication, and linguistics.

Essays examine the discourse of political press reports and TV interviews, political orations and election propaganda, legalistic, political-philosophic, and religious treatises. Throughout it provides an overview of the state of the art of political language, utilizing various research methods and disciplines.

OFER FELDMAN is Associate Professor at Naruto University of Education in Japan. He is the author of three earlier books and numerous articles and serves as executive editor of Politics, Groups and the Individual.

CHRIST'L DE LANDTSHEER is an Associate Professor of the University of Amsterdam. Before her academic career, she was professionally involved in mass media and politics through the National Belgian Broadcasting Company, the Dutch-Belgian Linguistic Union, and as a Political Cabinet Member in the Belgian government. She has written extensively at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCOR) on political rhetoric and communication.