Theory behind Russian Quest for Totalitarianism. Analysis of Discursive Swing in Putin's Speeches

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Joanna Rak ◽  
Roman Bäcker
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Qualitative Change ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Quantitative Alteration

Before 2014 Putin used semantic structures characteristic of authoritarianism and façade democracy to shape Russian political discourse. After the annexation of Crimea, we identify the decrease of authoritarian discursive elements, the occurrence of references to democratic values, and the prevalence of totalitarian discursive elements. This quantitative alteration co-occurred with a qualitative change of the intensity of totalitarian gnosis that increased from the low to the moderate extent. This paper aims to examine the extent of the intensity of totalitarian political gnosis in Putin's most influential speeches: the annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, and the president's annual news conference.

scholarly journals Ideology and Values in Turkey's Foreign Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 113-129
Author(s):  
V. A. Avatkov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
The World ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Republic Of Turkey

The article considers the role of ideology and values in the formation and implementation of the current foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey. Taking into account the increasing role of regional actors such as Turkey in international politics, studying their tactics and mechanisms of influence on the global political environment is necessary to explain the further transformation of the international system.The study reveals the strengthening role of the ideology and values in world politics in general and in individual states, such as Turkey, in particular. Under the rule of the Justice and Development Party headed by the current President R.T. Erdogan the country began a gradual transition from «Kemalism», which includes the preservation of secularism, ProWestern democratic values and a gradual departure from the Ottoman heritage, to a more conservative domestic and foreign policy, characterized by the strengthening of Islamist and nationalist sentiments, as well as the transition to the policy of «neo-Ottomanism», «neo-pan-Turkism». The return of the idea of «aggrandizement» of the country to the official political discourse has affected the conduct of Turkey's foreign policy towards both the regional states and the world arena as a whole.The Republic not only began self-restoration as an autonomous actor of international relations in the eyes of the key world powers, but also started to spread its own values and ideas among the population of both the Middle East and among the states which constitute a national interest for Turkey (Russia, the post-Soviet space, etc.), thus influencing them at various levels and involving them in its orbit of influence – both politically, economically and from a humanitarian point of view.Using «hard power» abroad no longer meets the current Turkey’s policy. Instead it relies on forging humanitarian ties, combining initiatives in the cultural, educational and scientific fields to achieve a long-term influence. The Republic of Turkey is trying to spread the following values among the world community:«Justice». International relations must be just and fair. For Turkey it means conformity with its national interests.«Religious fatalism». Government actions both at home and abroad are legitimized through references to religion and fate.«Democratic values». The Republic of Turkey considers itself the most democratic state in the world and contrasts itself with “Western democracies”, which, according to the Turkish leadership, are spreading hegemony rather than democracy.«State-centrism» and collectivism. The interests of the state, society, and especially the Muslim Ummah, are placed above the values of the individual.«Traditional values». Given the Islamization and conservatism of Turkish society as a whole, traditional values also begin to play a major role in the general political discourse of the state.«Culture». Turkey also makes adjustments to the concept of «culture» in very inclusive terms, presenting its culture as a «melting pot» that can turn anything into Turkish.«Respect». In the eastern tradition, it is customary to show respect to elders, as well as neighbors and guests. Turkey uses a demonstration of respect in foreign policy instrumentally and pragmatically. An example of this is the address of the President of Turkey in relation to the leaders of other states: Nursultan Nazarbayev – «aksakal» of the Turkic world, Vladimir Putin is a «dear friend».

scholarly journals Characteristics of language personality of the US president Donald Trump

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 170-178
Author(s):  
Olena Ilienko ◽  
◽  
Liudmyla Shumeiko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Emotional Meaning ◽  
Basic Concepts

The article analyzes the linguistic personality of President Donald Trump, taking into account this status in political discourse. The president, as an elected representative of power, acts primarily in certain communication genres, and the content of his speeches, statements, appeals reflects both the policy of the state in general in a certain period of time, and specific political intentions. Thus, even within the limits of the regulated political discourse in modern conditions of communication individual features of the person as the president of the country are seen. The article analyzes Trump’s speeches and tweets in terms of their lexical, syntactic, and epideictic content, highlights the key words that denote the basic concepts of President Trump’s activities and serve as a means of rhetorical influence. The article presents and analyses the key words in Trump’s speeches. They are as follows: America, Americans, democracy, success, president, to defend, hounorable, responsibility, to promise, which, in general, help to form the image of the President who is ready to take responsibility for the democratic values of Americans. The traditional topics of the President’s speeches are finance, war and peace, protection of the country, its food and legislation. Syntactically, Trump’s speeches and statements are characterized by the use of simple, short sentences, in the content of which there is the use of simple, unambiguous nouns with the strong emotional meaning – fear, pride, crisis, dream, success. As a means of rhetorical influence, Trump places the most meaningful positions of his speeches at the end of sentences with logical emphasis on them. A lot of points in Trump’s speeches are the expressions of gratitude, jokes, references, and other means of establishing the connection with the audience and expressing hi own personal position. A feature of the linguistic personality in modern communication is the use of social networks, where there may be some deviations from the formalized institutional political discourse in terms of grammar and style, and this fact as clearly as possible also characterizes Trump’s language personality. For political discourse, especially in the country with the democratic values, the reaction of the society, feedback from the people of a government official’s activities is important, and social networks can fully provide the people’s immediate response to the President’s activity, so the communication can be full, not one-sided.

scholarly journals The Genesis of Secular Politics in Medieval Philosophy: The King of Averroes and the Emperor of Dante

Labyrinth ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Sabeen Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
Islamic Philosophy ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Ideal

In contemporary political discourse, the "clash of civilizations" rhetoric often undergirds philosophical analyses of "democracy" both at home and abroad. This is nowhere better articulated than in Jacques Derrida's Rogues, in which he describes Islam as the only religious or theocratic culture that would "inspire and declare any resistance to democracy" (Derrida 2005, 29). Curiously, Derrida attributes the failings of democracy in Islam to the lack of reference to Aristotle's Politics in the writings of the medieval Muslim philosophers. This paper aims to analyze this gross misconception of Islamic philosophy and illuminate the thoroughgoing influence the Muslim philosophers had on their Christian successors, those who are so often credited as foundations of Western political philosophy. In so doing, I compare the ideal states presented by Averroes and Dante – in which Aristotelian influence is intimately interlaced – and offer an analysis thereof as heralds of what we might call the secularization of the political, inspiring those democratic values that Derrida believes to be absent in the rich philosophy of the Middle Ages.  

scholarly journals Legitimization and delegitimization strategies on terrorism

Pragmatics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Jose Hellin Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Solid Ground ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
The Government

This article examines the role of Building Metaphors in the political discourse of the former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. More specific, it analyzes how Building Metaphors serve as legitimization and delegitimization strategies used by the Government and its anti-terrorist plight. The corpus of investigation comprises all political speeches on terrorism during Zapatero’s two terms in office (from April 2004 to December 2011). I argue that the use of Building Metaphors is a strategy of Zapatero’s whereby the solid ground of the Government’s anti-terrorist initiative is juxtaposed with terrorism’s lack of foundation. Findings suggest that the following conceptual metaphors are used as framing devices: POLITICS IS BUILDING, POLITICAL ENTITIES ARE BUILDINGS, THE GOVERNMENT IS THE BUILDER, TERRORISM IS THE DESTROYER, DEMOCRACY IS A STANDING BUILDING WITH SOLID FOUNDATIONS, TERRORISM IS A BUILDING WITH NO FOUNDATIONS, DEMOCRATIC VALUES ARE CONNECTORS, and TERRORIST VALUES ARE OBSTRUCTORS.

scholarly journals Realizacja konceptu „wolność” i „sprawiedliwość” w oficjalnych wystąpieniach prezydenta W.W. Putina (na materiale orędzi do Zgromadzenia Federalnego)

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 279-293
Author(s):  
Robert Szymula ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Presidential Discourse ◽  
Descriptive Method

The article presents an analysis of the verbalization of two concepts important for different genres of political discourse: the concepts of “freedom” and “justice”. The study was prepared on the basis of a relatively new genre for Russian presidential discourse, which is the Presidential address to the Federal Assembly. The lexical material was taken from all the addresses delivered by President W.W. Putin (2000–2007, 2012–2016, 2018–2020). The descriptive method and the contextual method were used during the analysis. The analysis showed that the verbalizations of these concepts are not numerous; they are also quite general. The main emphasis in the case of the concept of “freedom” was placed on the economy, and in the case of the concept of “justice” on the social sphere.

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