The purpose of this study is to investigate the rhetorical strategies used by Reverend Jesse L. Jackson from the 1970's to the 1990's. Specifically, this study examines Jackson's use of narrative to empower himself, his constituency, and his political ideologies without possessing a traditional political platform. Jackson raised political and social consciousness regarding the positions he held by telling persuasive, strategically constructed narratives. By examining Jackson's narrated approach to politics, arguments can be constructed to demonstrate how Jackson rhetorically operates from an unorthodox platform in the political arena. A functionalist view of narrative, as defined by Lucaites and Condit (1985), is applied to Jackson's 1984, 1988, and 1992 Democratic National Convention addresses in order to account for "tangible" objectives being carried out by the narrative discourse form. In doing so, the study argues that Jackson's narratives initially functioned: to empower Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition; to bolster public approval ratings of Jackson from 30% to 54%; and later to promote Statehood for Washington D.C. / Graduation date: 1994

The purpose of this study is to illuminate the role, the function, and the ironic outcome of the Victory in Vietnam Committee's campaign pamphlet to recall Senator Frank Church of Idaho in 1967. The VVC's political strategy was to build credibility with the media through the recall pamphlet. The analysis of the recall pamphlet shows the failure of the Victory in Vietnam Committee to adapt to the intended audience, the media. The pamphlet is further evaluated in the context of manichean rhetoric to highlight the unethical use of credibility building techniques and the ultimate goal of the VVC to stifle Church's dissent with respect to the Vietnam War. The irony of the Victory in Vietnam Committee's explanatory pamphlet is that instead of helping to oust Church by exposing his faults, it caused the downfall of the Victory in Vietnam Committee. / Graduation date: 1992

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The topic under consideration is the rhetoric of British Columbia's political leaders and their strategic use of language whereby the government maintains its position of power and authority, implements its own ideological priorities, even if unpopular, and deprives the opposition of its ability to effectively mount a counter strategy. Aspects of political philosophies, human nature, scientific knowledge, education, and alternate feminist political philosophical views are presented. Brief sketches of Constitutionalism, The Rule of Law and ideological bases of modern political systems, liberalism and socialism, are considered in the context of a political spectrum that spans communism to fascism. An analytical framework adapted from the classical rhetoric of Aristotle and the new rhetoric of Kenneth Burke is used to examine the rhetoric and actions of the political leaders of British Columbia. Findings indicate that the strategies employed are effective and persuasive to the dominant majority of the populace. Components of strategy are identified which are deemed necessary in order that a democratically elected government may pursue successfully, a revolutionary political ideological change in its philosophy. Priorities and areas of social concern are identified in terms of their esteem for the present government leaders. The market principle and technology are the sacred cows. Education of a liberal kind, women, the welfare state, are a sow's ear. One recommendation is that adult education unite with movements that espouse and practice like philosophies so that it is strengthened and rejuvenated in its mandate and not precipitated to bend to the prevailing political ideology. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This study analyzes the leadership qualities of Joseph McCarthy and the rhetorical qualities of agitative and control forces in a specific social movement. The methods used are founded upon various theories outlined by sociologists, historians, and rhetoricians. This investigation is organized around the climate of the times, McCarthy's leadership development, agitative strategies, control group responses, and support and opposition groups. It was found that the movement's success was probably due to McCarthy's position of attack and offense and to the control group's failure to neither strongly confront McCarthy nor to maintain its preparedness and superiority. It is theorized that had the control group engaged earlier in strategies other than adjustment and avoidance, the movement might have been halted sooner.

This dissertation is guided by three central questions: Why did the Abu Ghraib photographs fail to generate widespread opposition to the Iraq War among U.S. citizens? How did U.S. political leaders, news media, and entertainment media rhetorically manage the impact of the violence at Abu Ghraib? Finally, what can the tortures at Abu Ghraib tell us about commitment to national identity and justifications for violence? I argue that the primary rhetorical, ideological work of national violence against a foreign other is to create and protect national identification that deflects potential critique of national policy and discourages alternative allegiances (e.g., those of race and class). In support of this argument, I analyze four sets of texts surrounding the scandal. First, I analyze the Abu Ghraib photographs. These photographs, revealing torture of Iraqi detainees by U.S. troops, posed a serious challenge to American national identity and the prevailing rationale for war: namely, that the U.S. would liberate Iraqis from a torturous dictator and the threat of terrorism. The remaining types of discourse, then, can be seen as rhetorical attempts at damage control, containing and softening the edges of the visual records of violence against an enemy Other. For example, the second set of discourses I examine contains the legal memoranda outlining U.S. "coercive interrogation practices" dating back to September 2001. I compare these documents to the political speeches made by public officials during the 2004 presidential campaign. These texts, I argue, provide insight into the Abu Ghraib scandal's political context and illustrate how the scandal was ultimately managed by the Bush administration as a matter of private authority and prerogative rather than public accountability. Third, I explore mainstream media reports concerning Abu Ghraib in order to come to a better understanding of how violence is framed for public consumption. And finally, I analyze depictions of the torture within the popular television series 24. Because 24's plotline deals with issues of torture and terrorist threat, I argue that it can help us better understand both the social climate in which the Abu Ghraib scandal emerged and our current climate in which torture is still very much an issue. / text

This thesis examines Bitzer's model of the rhetorical situation by using it, in combination with elements of Bormann's fantasy theme analysis to perform a criticism of radical right rhetoric. First, it identifies the exigencies that give rise to the sovereignty rhetoric employed by members of the radical right. This analysis then determines whether the speech meets the needs of its intended audience. To accomplish this task, two websites are analyzed: the Posse Comitatus/Christian Identity website and that of the Republic of Texas, a secessionist, common law/sovereign citizen's site. These websites claim to be the official websites of the two organizations. The analysis is a generative analysis, combining Bitzer's model of rhetorical situation with aspects of Bormann's fantasy theme analysis. Through performing the analysis, weaknesses and areas for improvement in Bitzer's model will be identified.Sovereignty and common law rhetoric comes in many variations, but all revolve around a central principle - that there are two classes of citizenship. United States citizenship is conferred by the Fourteenth Amendment and is accepted by participation in programs such as social security (Nagle, 1996). This form of citizenship is subject to extensive regulation and taxation. However, sovereignty rhetoric focuses on state citizenship. This type of citizenship is conferred by common law and can be recaptured by rejecting U.S. citizenship. Advocates of sovereignty argue that state citizens are not subject to most federal laws and cannot be taxed by the federal government.Why study common law/sovereign citizen rhetoric? There is broad crosspollination among extremist groups, and sovereignty rhetoric is a consistent theme for many of these groups (Shapiro, 1995). For example, individuals convicted of abortion bombings have had militia ties, and tax protestors attend preparedness expos' (Tharp & Holstein, 1997). Likewise, events such as the death of Randy Weaver's wife in the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff, and the 1993 Branch Davidian fire are cited by extremists of numerous ideologies as evidence of a government conspiracy (Dyer, 1997).2 Furthermore, for every camouflage-clothed militia member, there are several amateur attorneys studying old law books, the Constitution and each other's websites in an effort to unravel the meaning of the "true" Constitution (Abanes, 1996).The Posse Comitatus and Republic of Texas websites are useful artifacts because they are clear examples of the types of rhetoric addressed in this study. The present incarnation of the Posse Comitatus merges Posse Comitatus and Christian Identity rhetoric, allowing exploration of the common law rhetoric of both groups through one website. While claiming not to be a militia website, the Republic ofI Preparedness expos offer survivalist training and equipment, firearms, ammunition and common law materials (Tharp & Holstein).Extremists are particularly fascinated by the date April 19, a date on which events ranging from the Revolutionary War to the Branch Davidian fire took place (Stern). In some circles, this date is called Militia Day and has assumed almost religious significance.Texas maintains at least three separate militias and features extensive discussions of common law and sovereign citizen rhetoric.To understand these groups, it is necessary to understand the exigencies that brought them into existence. Bitzer's model of rhetorical situation, with its focus on exigencies, is an excellent tool for understanding the social and economic factors contributing to the growth of these types of groups. However, Bitzer offers only limited insight into how the messages are spread and why people accept them. Bormann's fantasy theme method of analysis helps answer the questions of how the sovereignty/common law message satisfies the rhetorical and psychological needs of the group members. / Department of Communication Studies

This dissertation seeks to delineate some of the fault lines of the disparate worldviews and assumptions that have polarized our national discourse, as well as the imbalances of power they support or disrupt. Building on previous case studies of ideologically oppositional political blogs, the dissertation examines thirty-nine key documents from the website torturingdemocracy.org, primarily legal memos written by Bush Administration lawyers (the “Torture Memos”), to analyze a rhetoric of torture that, as a subset of the war on terror, serves as a “ground zero” of political values and motivations. Further, it seeks to combine mixed methods of analysis from various disciplines to help reveal the underlying beliefs and values that inform current national discourse. The cross-disciplinary methods combine rhetorical, linguistic, and critical discourse analyses to examine and interrogate the language that created metaphorical and actual spaces in which torture was legalized, employed, and legitimated. Applying a grounded theory approach to Huckin’s four levels of linguisticgranularity--context, text, phrase, and word (including the use of concordancing software)--the research reveals the logical fallacies, faulty argumentation, slippery word usage, linguistic and rhetorical manipulations, and finally, authoritarian underpinnings that characterize the memos. The research further uncovers multiple strategies used to create the Other, such as Lazar and Lazar’s four micro-strategies of “outcasting” (criminalization, (e)vilification, orientalization, and enemy construction), and strategies of minimizing or maximizing the positive and negative traits of in-versus out-groups in van Dijk’s “ideological square.” The research shows how, in the language of the war on terror, words take on different, even opposite, meanings from previous significations, shifting the national debate about the legitimacy of torture as a hypothetical means of protection. Further, close examination reveals a different intent behind the memos than the purported defense of the country used repeatedly to justify torture. Findings illuminate the memos as the products of authoritarian followers who enabled what Altemeyer calls “double highs”—ideological social dominants with an authoritarian worldview--in a wide-reaching and largely successful bid for power. Lastly, the dissertation points to the need to further investigate and articulate an anti-authoritarian, social egalitarian worldview as a challenge to power structures that, enshrined in language, may constitute a serious threat to democracy. / The great divide -- Review of the literature -- Methods and methodology -- The scene, the agents, their agency and their purpose : conceptions of power and the torture debate -- Torture and the law -- Thirty-nine documents -- The "semantic tap-dance" : discursive, rhetorical and lexico-grammatical strategies in the torture memos -- Constructions of identity -- Constructing torture -- Analysis and conclusions. / Department of English

South Africa achieved its formal democracy through a negotiated settlement in 1994. Formal democracy focuses on liberty, rights and basic freedom such as freedom of speech, and the right to vote, amongst others, while substantive democracy focuses on equality, social justice, and the area of economic rights with a focus on reduction of poverty, unemployment and increased equality. It is within the substantive democratisation theoretical framework, that South Africa’s democratic achievement has not necessarily been as great as its political achievements in constructing a constitutional democracy. This is evident in the continued patterns of racialised inequality and poverty, as well as the increase in service delivery protest action, which can destabilise the democratic success achieved in 1994. The objective of economic development is to create an environment where people can enjoy economic stability, job security and health, and lead productive lives, on one hand. On the other hand, political development seeks to create an environment where people can enjoy peace, rule of law and freedom. Politics and economics therefore go hand in hand to attain wealth benefits for people and create a sufficient level of political stability within a transitioning context. South Africa has made some strides towards getting political stability and a democratic state, but much still needs to be done to reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality. Hence an argument stressing the need for a Second Transition or Economic CODESA has recently entered the sphere of political public debate. This project seeks to deconstruct and explain the discourse of the Second Transition and Economic CODESA. The studies found that centre to this debate are key redistributive issues. Poverty, inequality and unemployment are key substantive challenges that have the potential to undermine political stability if they are not effectively dealt with.

This thesis analyzes the eulogistic and ideological rhetoric generated by the commemoration ceremonies recognizing the first anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. By evaluating these ceremonies generically through a set of established epideictic criteria, a comparison and contrast of form and style in relation to their varying situations and rhetorical constraints was achieved. The intentional introduction of deliberative aspects to epideictic rhetoric was also a focus of this study in an attempt to discern the ideological frameworks employed by the various rhetors responsible for the content of the day's events. By analyzing the tokens and ideographs embedded in the rhetoric of the commemorative speakers, the ideological purposes of the planners and rhetors of the ceremonies were revealed. As a nationally televised, ceremonial event, the 9/11 commemoration failed. The mixed messages contained in the eulogies and the lack of a planned rhetorical strategy resulted in an emotionally engaging but fragmented exercise in public discourse.