In three papers, I consider two questions of nationalization in American politics, and one question of the methodology necessary to study them. Nationalization is the process by which local politics become more like national politics on the basis of political issues and electoral engagement. It is usually measured using the difference in presidential and state-level electoral returns over time. To expand the study of nationalization, I use automated content analysis to derive new measures for the phenomenon’s study based on political text. In particular, I apply automated content analysis via latent dirichlet allocation to code for salient topics in text from national political agenda speech, local agenda speech, and state laws. The primary source for these local agenda codes is a novel database of State of the State addresses, which are like presidential State of the Union addresses, but are delivered by governors. I developed the database over the past seven years as part of this dissertation; it draws from all 50 States, and the earliest captured addresses date to the year 1893. The secondary sources for these codes are the State of the Union addresses and a corpus of laws passed by state legislatures. I utilize the codes from these naturally distinct text corpora to study the nationalization of the political agenda, and how nationalized elections relate to the production of salient laws. The comparison of naturally distinct texts, however, is problematic and requires further examination. To that end, the first paper, “A Theory and Method for Pooling Naturally Distinct Corpora” concerns the theory and method for why we should be able to use, pool, and compare the computer-generated codes from these naturally distinct text corpora to study nationalization. I propose a theoretical framework with which the researcher may defend the pooling of corpora, and introduce an empirical approach to testing for absolute comparability, the delta-statistic. While statistics like the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and penalized log likelihood can help the researcher to determine if a model fits the pooled corpora better than the corpora separately, the delta-statistic relies on a strong theory of latent traits to evaluate the absolute quality of a pooled model. This is especially important when it is impossible to evaluate ground truth fit because some data are unlabeled. The second paper, “Have State Policy Agendas Become More Nationalized?” examines whether the nationalization of state policy agendas is related to the nationalization of gubernatorial elections. The analysis shows that State agendas, as laid out in the State of the State addresses, have become more similar to each other over time. It also shows that State agendas have become more similar to the national agenda, as laid out in the State of the Union addresses. Finally, I demonstrate an increasing relationship between the similarity in the agenda and the nationalization of elections. The findings suggest that the nationalization of the agenda is a significant and related factor to the nationalization of elections. The third paper, “Can States Govern Effectively When Politics Are Nationalized?” considers the question of whether electoral nationalization moderates the relationship between divided government and legislative productivity in the states. I find a null effect of divided government on salient lawmaking ability, and that nationalization of state legislatures has generally decreased the production of salient laws. The result holds even though nationalization is unrelated to the ability of our state governments to take action on salient issues during times of divided government. The findings suggest that behavioral factors driving lawmaker decisions may be more to blame for lawmaking defects than institutional ones. Taken together, the essays demonstrate the value of text analysis to the analysis of nationalization and other research topics in American politics.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study aims to examine the existence of populism in campaign speeches held by the Swedish party the Social Democrats in the election years 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 in Almedalen. By attempting to answer if there is any populism in the party´s speeches, and if the populism has increased over the years, the essay will analyze the speeches using a qualitative text analysis and a descriptive idea analysis. Based on the study of the theory, ideal types have been created to be applied to the speeches. The study´s definition of populism is created by Mudde and Kaltwasser (2017).They mean that populism is a communication style used in politics. This study’s results show that there is populism in the Social Democrats speeches held in Almedalen. The results also show that various amounts of populism have existed in the speeches over the years.

The purpose of this thesis was to uncover the tools of manipulation used within political discourses by governments in their attempt to maintain power in society. It specifically asked, How do Canadian federal governments manipulate security, risk, and threat discourses alongside their presentation and understanding of Canadian identity in throne speeches to justify the direction they intend to take the country in with their mandate? This thesis used Critical Discourse Analysis methods to analyze fourteen federal majority government speeches from the throne during the rise and fall of social welfare in Canada. Findings highlight that governments have relatively consistently used the combination of security, risk, and threat discourses between 1935 and 2015. Canadian identity has also been shown to be malleable to government priorities, being connected to notions of collectivism during the rise of social welfare and individualization and productivity during the implementation of neoliberal principles. The introduction of the promise of job creation within the speeches was found to correlate with the introduction of neoliberal principles in Canada. These findings highlight the importance of critical understanding of dominant discourses in society in order to overcome the power they can impose over non-dominant groups. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

In 2022 Russia launched a large-scale invasion of its neighboring country Ukraine which compelled the United States to support Ukraine in its defense of the country. This created a situation with strained relations between USA and its allies in NATO on one side and Russia on the other side. This situation closely resembles the situation that the two superpowers, USA and the Soviet Union, found them selves in during a particularly hot period of the coldwar during the early 1980s. This study relies on Faircloughs critical discourse analysis to analyze speeches held by cold war leaders during the early 1980s and leaders of today during the time of the war in Ukraine. This essay then compares these leaders use of constructed images of “the other” in search of similarities and differences in these constructions. This study comes to the conclusion that only two of the four speeches contain a constructed image of “the other” as a clear enemy while the other two speeches portray “the other” in a less extreme way by presenting them as something alien to the own group. This study also shows that certain ways of portraying “the other” aren't bound to certain eras of time or side in aperiod of strained relations and polarization.

This study critically analyzed four selected campaign speeches by Robert Kennedy from his 1968 campaign to determine his use of the Camelot myth and his success in portraying himself as the heir apparent to the Kennedy legend. Using procedures adapted from fantasy theme analysis, the rhetorical vision of Camelot was outlined, and the fantasy themes and fantasy types within it were determined. The public persona of Robert Kennedy was also evaluated. Throughout the speeches analyzed, Robert Kennedy invoked themes identified within the rhetorical vision of Camelot. In addition to his own themes of social justice and reconciliation, Kennedy promoted his brother's legend. Chaining evidence provided proof of the public's participation in the rhetorical vision demonstrating Kennedy's success with these themes.