This book is a companion to Political Debasement: Incivility, Contempt, and Humiliation in Parliamentary and Public Discourse. It brings together interdisciplinary contributions to provide a comprehensive and detailed exploration of the nature, function, and effect of debasement language used by selected political leaders in Western and non-Western countries. Among them are Donald Trump (in the USA), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey), Rodrigo Roa Duterte (Philippines), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Abe Shinzô (Japan), Pauline Hanson (Australia), Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Greece), Geert Wilders (the Netherlands), Beppe Grillo (Italy), and Santiago Abascal (Spain). Chapters focus specifically on the language of these leaders while examining debasement discourse from narrow and broad perspectives. The former includes the use of crude or abusive language (e.g., curses, obscenity, and swearing) to demean, humiliate, mock, insult, or belittle, based on the actual or perceived object or entity (e.g., race, religion, national, gender identity, or sexual orientation); the latter includes the use of devious or indirect irony, sarcasm, cynicism, ridicule, subtlety, and understatement to degrade and discredit other individuals or groups. The book represents the collective wisdom of scholars and researchers, experts in fields such as communication, political science, international relations, and social and political psychology. Cumulatively, the authors develop a global analysis of debasement discourse in societies from West to East and offer a cutting-edge approach to expand a framework assessing the role and effect of such rhetoric in contemporary politics.

This edited book is an innovative collection of studies—pioneering scholarship systematically exploring the various features of debasement language used by political leaders in their speeches, statements, and remarks during parliamentary and other official as well as unofficial, private activities. The book examines in particular the forms, functions, and effects of political debasement in Western and non-Western countries, including Spain, Malaysia, the UK, Japan, China, India, Montenegro, Greece, Poland, and Israel. It addresses the growing interest in recent years in issues related to the increase of debasement in the public sphere. These include high-echelon politicians’ invective and vulgarity toward their colleagues in houses of parliament; their abusive and cynical language toward sections of the public, including women and minorities; and their crude sarcasm and irony expressed toward media representatives. The book focuses on those instances where political leaders at the very highest-level employ debasement discourse; it identifies the specific language they use in different political cultures and under different situations; the reasons for using this type of language; and its consequences. The book brings together a team of distinguished political scientists, communication and linguistics researchers, and social and political psychologists, with expert backgrounds and experience in understanding the reciprocal interaction between language and politics, in this case: debasement. They discuss and provide a number of novel insights of theoretical and practical importance regarding debasing discourse, as well as potential avenues for future research on the nature and effect of this type of language.

Political Rhetoric in Theory and Practice is an introduction to the art of rhetoric or persuasive speaking. A collection of primary sources, it combines classic statements of the theory of political rhetoric (Aristotle, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Cicero) with a rich array of political speeches, from Socrates to Martin Luther King Jr., Pericles to Richard Nixon, Sojourner Truth to Phyllis Schlafly. These speeches exemplify not only the three principal kinds of rhetoric – judicial, deliberative, and epideictic – but also the principal rhetorical proofs. Grouped thematically, the speeches boast a diversity of speakers, subject matters, and themes. At a time when the practice of democracy and democratic deliberation are much in question, this book seeks to encourage the serious study of rhetoric by making available important examples of it, in both its noblest and its most scurrilous forms.

Rhetoric is among the most important and least understood elements of presidential leadership. Presidents have always wielded rhetoric as one tool of governance—and that rhetoric was always intended to facilitate political ends, such as image building, persuasion of the mass public, and inter-branch government persuasion. But as mass media has grown and then fragmented, as the federal bureaucracy has continued to both expand and calcify, and as partisanship has heightened tensions both within Congress and between Congress and the Executive, rhetoric is an increasingly important element of presidential governance. Scholars have derived ways to explain how these developments and the presidents’ use of rhetoric have contributed to and detracted from the health of American democracy. This briefing book offers a succinct reflection on the ways in which historical developments have encouraged the use of political rhetoric. It explores strategies of “going public” to provide some leverage over the political system and the lessons one might derive from these choices. This essential analysis, written for lay readers, scholars, students, and future presidents, is the first in Transaction’s innovative Presidential Briefings series. Mary E. Stuckey covers the scholarly literature with authority and offers examples of rhetoric that have lasting influence.

In its eighth edition, American Political Rhetoric is the only reader for introductory classes in American politics and political communication that explores fundamental political principles through political rhetoric. Contributors include America’s founders, modern public officials, Supreme Court opinions, and representatives of social movements.

This timely book details the theoretical and practical elements of political rhetoric and their effects on the interactions between politicians and the public. Expert contributors explore the issues associated with political rhetoric from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including political science, linguistics, social psychology and communication studies. Chapters examine what makes a speech effective, politicians’ use of moral appeals in political advertising, political attacks on social media, and gender and emotion in political discourse.

In a profound revelation of what truly undergirds modern political rhetoric, Morgan Marietta shows that the language of America's leaders often relies on deep, even sacred, ideals. The Politics of Sacred Rhetoric is a comprehensive and detailed survey of the rhetorical tactics employed even among the highest government offices as tools of political persuasion. Through careful analysis of the use of absolutist claims--and appeals to what a speaker deems to be universal truths--Marietta uncovers the sometimes subtle ways in which politicians employ this sacred rhetoric and demonstrates its impact on citizens' reasoning, public discourse, and the very nature of American democracy.

This book presents a new approach to the analysis of political psychology, political culture, and communication. Using data from Japanese political interviews and parliamentary deliberations, it reveals how Japanese politicians address their audience. In addition to analyzing the use of verbal political rhetoric, the book shows that nonverbal communication is highly relevant as well. In a context where political leaders are becoming increasingly important, identifying the techniques used by Japanese politicians – especially facial expressions, hand gestures, and other forms of body language – to gain support from the audience, leads us to consider communication practices of political leaders around the world. Politicians adopt different communication styles based on their specific electoral system. The more single-seat constituency political candidates use rhetoric, the greater their chance of appealing to voters. In addition, the use of personal experiences and others' speech quotations function as effective political rhetoric, further attracting the audience’s attention. In short, this book presents a more comprehensive and holistic picture of political “rhetoric” than usually offered by other studies of political communication.

This anthology of studies is a follow-up to Political Humor Worldwide: The Cultural Context of Political Comedy, Satire, and Parody. It further examines political humor as a distinct sub-discipline of political communication, influenced and shaped by a country’s culture. The book’s contributors, experts drawn from the academic fields of political science, communication, linguistics, sociology, culture studies, political psychology, and others, offer an assortment of studies from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Focusing on political humor in the media, the authors offer a panorama of political humor—including political satire, parody, and cartooning—in Spain, Poland, Montenegro, Turkey, Japan, Australia, Iran, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, and Indonesia, among others. They detail political humor’s multifaceted and versatile nature, suggesting that national culture and political humor expressed in the news media are intertwined; thus, understanding political humor requires looking at the cultural landscape of a given country or society. The book helps readers to better understand the factors that shape political humor across the globe in a variety of political and media systems.

This collection of original chapters reflects the increasing interest over the past few decades in the relationship between political humor (as a distinct form of political discourse) and a country’s culture: Beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and processes that are affected, shaped by, and related to historical experiences, socialization processes, social structure, religion, the economic system, and majority/minority relations. Written by contributors from various fields of study – political science, communication, linguistics, sociology, culture studies, and political psychology – the book looks at the central role played by “culture” in shaping and affecting the sundry aspects of political humor, including satire and parody. The chapters, focusing on diverse countries such as the USA, UK, Greece, Philippines, Israel, Poland, Italy, and Spain, as well as ethnic groups, offer a comprehensive overview of political humor as used by public figures, including politicians, artists, performers, as well as comedians, talk shows hosts and and the general public. By presenting fresh perspectives on the relationship between culture and political humor as employed during political debates in parliament, in media interviews and shows, on the internet and in art, the book opens up new avenues for discussion regarding the factors that shape political humor across the globe in a variety of political and media systems.