Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-226).

Thesis (DTh)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

The objective of this thesis is to complement the wealth of scholarly works which examine the "transitions from authoritarian rule" that occured in Spain and Brazil. This thesis distinguishes itself from these earlier works by bracketing discussion concerning the elite-level political transitions that occured in order to concentrate on the democratization and socialization of the Spanish and Brazilian societies. / The work focuses on a number of collective organizations that emerge during these transitions, and will postulate an argument as to why they should be referred to as "transformation movements". Two important questions that the thesis addresses while examining these cases are: "why do these movements emerge under authoritarian regimes," and "what is it about transformation movements that merits some type of differentiation from other types of collective action?". / The significance of these questions to the understanding of "transformation movements", and the role of these movements in the transitions that occured in Spain and Brazil, unfolds in the work that follows.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2009. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until March 30, 2014 Includes bibliographical references (leaves 353-363)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until March 30, 2014 Includes bibliographical references (leaves 353-363)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 22, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-108).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 286-322).

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published_or_final_version / Humanities / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The traditional master-narrative in histories of rhetoric assumes that formal democratic institutions make possible a flourishing rhetorical culture (as at Athens in the fifth-fourth centuries B.C.E.). This dissertation, however, offers a counter-view, with two main lines of argument. On one hand, the traditional master-narrative is open to critique for failing to recognize or fully attend to rhetorical activity outside of operative democracies, and it also fails to account for rhetorical activities that are not recognized as legitimate speech within democracies. On the other hand, one may argue that rhetorical activities (or certain kinds) embody practices that make democracy possible, whether formal democratic institutions exist or not. This dissertation, then, contends that rhetorical practices that presuppose equality are not a product of democracy, but are democracy’s condition of possibility. This counter-narrative is developed through four chapters. Chapter One hypothesizes that individuals presuppose equality while engaging in rhetorical practices that disrupt the smooth operation of “settled” ideologies. Turning to specific cases, I examine politics in Athens during the fifth century B.C.E. (Chapter Two), education in nineteenth-century Europe (Chapter Three), and digital media in the present era (Chapter Four) as public spheres in which unauthorized voices speak with as much rhetorical effect as credentialed experts. When a community tries to account for these voices, I conclude, moments of democracy occur. This alternative vision of rhetorical practices as proto-democratic activities both offers a new way to account for instances of marginalized rhetorical activity and an intervention in rhetorical studies generally. If there is a presumption of equality inherent in certain kinds rhetorical activity, and if that presumption is a precondition for democracy, then we might write the history of rhetoric differently, and reconceive its relation to formal civic institutions. / text