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.

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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)

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.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:25:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Walter Filho.pdf: 2078551 bytes, checksum: a933ce2b19211d6d8a4934a30cd2fa34 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-04-28 / The scope of this thesis is to investigate about the contemporary law statute, articulating law and the psychoanalitic speeches in Freud and Lacan perspectives. Transformations that have been happenning in law since modernity, have inscribed ethical and epistemological problems that question its unity, legitimity and foundation. The theme is approached focusing the time problem. It s not about, however, a linear time, in a yesterday-today-tomorrow paradigm. It s about present time (in portuguese, tempo atual ): it s made of a discursive action, which is the action of how to operate and to say law, in a jouissance field. The different perspectives and discursive positions that constitute the juridical praxis determine the ex-centric effects,of no-sense, power effects. The speech is, in this context, analysed, which means that the different discursive positions of the subject of law science are read, constituting the juridical field around an emptiness that structures it and that is a condition for its social function. The pretentious scientism establishes different discourses, different ways of saying law; summarizing, it establishes the juridical speech as an unscientific (in portuguese, a-científico ) (it is about from object a of the lacanian notation, of a speech in which the alterity and the emptiness are constitutive). The psychoanalysis (that operates related to the subject of the science and inscribes the speech as a social bond, in the articulation between signifier and jouissance) was not used in a metaspeech function, which allowed it to be articulated to the pragmatics. It implied not in a criticism of the law, but a criticism in the juridical reason, considering that the different juridical speeches are constitutive of the juridical reason and of the truth of the subject that determines, in action, the way of saying law, producing social, economics and political consequences, that imply the subject, either for its actions and decisions (even when the subject places itself in a position of object - which is the condition of the subjective position changing, according to the analitical action premisses). In this context, a displacement of the traditional opositions, like humanities and natural science, closed system and open system was made. The unity of the juridical system, understood as an autopoietic system that is originated from its operations and, then, from the discoursives positions of the subject of law, one by one. A juridical system constitutively a-nomic, not because there would be lack of laws or norms, but for the effect of the norms and the discoursive ways of saying and operating law. Before that, the context of the well-saying ethics and of the lacanian (l)uhmannism (in an articulation between Luhmann and Lacan thoughts) was emphasized, and also the ex-sistence of the subject of law and its responsability for the act of citizen-ship (in portuguese, cidadani-a), which means, for the act of saying and reading the acts in law field, adopting a position before the strategies and effects of power that constitute the juridical speech. The legitimacy and foundation of law are not situated in traditional law philosophy, but they are inscribed in the functioning of democrac-y (in portuguese, democraci-a). The juridic-a-l philosophy is not opposed to knowing about law science, considering that it ex-sists in the act of operating law, inscribed in the not-knowing, which is constitutive of the juridical field / A tese indaga sobre o estatuto do direito contemporâneo, articulando o discurso jurídico ao psicanalítico, nas perspectivas freudiana e lacaniana. As transformações que ocorrem no direito desde a modernidade colocam problemas éticos e epistemológicos e questionam a sua unidade, legitimidade e fundamento. A abordagem do tema envolve assim a problemática do tempo. Não se trata, entretanto, de um tempo contínuo, e sim de um corte com o esquema temporal passado-presente-futuro. Trata-se de um tempo atual: ele é efeito de um ato discursivo, o ato de operar e dizer o direito, em um campo de gozo. As diferentes perspectivas e posições discursivas constitutivas da práxis jurídica são determinantes de efeitos ex-cêntricos, de sem-sentido, efeitos de poder. Nesse contexto, procedeu-se à análise de discurso, ou seja, à leitura das diferentes posições discursivas do sujeito da ciência do direito, constituindo o campo jurídico em torno de um vazio que o estrutura e é condição de seu funcionamento social. A pretensão de cientificidade instaura a diferença discursiva, diferentes modos de dizer o direito, em suma, instaura o discurso jurídico como discurso a-científico (trata-se, a partir do objeto a da notação lacaniana, de um discurso em que a alteridade e o vazio lhe são constitutivos). A psicanálise (que opera em relação ao sujeito da ciência e inscreve o discurso como laço social, na articulação entre significante e gozo) não foi usada assim em uma função metadiscursiva, o que permitiu articulá-la à pragmática. Isso implicou não uma crítica do direito, e sim uma crítica na razão jurídica, já que os diferentes discursos jurídicos são constitutivos da razão jurídica e da verdade do sujeito. Eles determinam, em ato, um modo de dizer o direito, produzindo conseqüências sociais, econômicas, políticas, que implicam o sujeito, pelas suas ações e decisões (ainda quando ele se coloca na posição de objeto o que é condição da mudança de posição subjetiva, segundo as premissas do ato analítico). Nesse contexto, realizou-se o deslocamento das oposições tradicionais, como ciência natural e ciência humana, sistema fechado e sistema aberto. A unidade do sistema jurídico, entendido como sistema autopoiético, decorre de suas operações e, pois, das posições discursivas do sujeito de direito, uma a uma. Um sistema jurídico constitutivamente anômico, não por falta de lei ou de norma, mas por efeito da norma e dos modos discursivos de dizer e operar o direito. Diante disso, enfatizou-se no contexto da ética do bem-dizer e do (l)uhmannismo lacaniano (na articulação entre Luhmann e Lacan), a ex-sistência do sujeito de direito e sua responsabilidade pelo ato de cidadani-a, ou seja, pelo ato de dizer e ler os atos no campo do direito, posicionando-se perante as estratégias e efeitos de poder que constituem o discurso jurídico. A legitimidade e fundamento do direito não se situam assim no âmbito da filosofia do direito, mas se inscrevem no funcionamento da democraci-a. A filosofia jurídic-a não se opõe ao saber da ciência do direito, já que ela ex-siste no ato de operar o direito, como inscrição do não-saber constitutivo do campo jurídico