TY - JOUR
T1 - Twisting tongues and twisting arms
T2 - The power of political rhetoric
AU - Krebs, Ronald R.
AU - Jackson, Patrick Thaddeus
PY - 2007/3
Y1 - 2007/3
N2 - While scholars of International Relations and comparative politics have usually treated rhetoric as epiphenomenal, one strand of constructivism has recently returned rhetoric to the heart of political analysis, especially through the mechanism of persuasion. We too maintain that rhetoric is central to political processes and outcomes, but we argue that persuasion is theoretically and methodologically problematic. We aver that rhetoric's role may be more usefully conceptualized in the context of coercion, and we advance a stylized model that illustrates how rhetorical coercion operates, explains why it works, and identifies key scope conditions. We subsequently illustrate our model's relevance through a detailed examination of a 'hard' case. This article's agenda is twofold. First, it advises scholars in these fields to avoid focusing on unanswerable questions about actors' motives and to examine instead what actors say, in what contexts, and to what audiences. Second, it lays the groundwork for a 'coercive constructivism', complementing the liberal version so prevalent today.
AB - While scholars of International Relations and comparative politics have usually treated rhetoric as epiphenomenal, one strand of constructivism has recently returned rhetoric to the heart of political analysis, especially through the mechanism of persuasion. We too maintain that rhetoric is central to political processes and outcomes, but we argue that persuasion is theoretically and methodologically problematic. We aver that rhetoric's role may be more usefully conceptualized in the context of coercion, and we advance a stylized model that illustrates how rhetorical coercion operates, explains why it works, and identifies key scope conditions. We subsequently illustrate our model's relevance through a detailed examination of a 'hard' case. This article's agenda is twofold. First, it advises scholars in these fields to avoid focusing on unanswerable questions about actors' motives and to examine instead what actors say, in what contexts, and to what audiences. Second, it lays the groundwork for a 'coercive constructivism', complementing the liberal version so prevalent today.
KW - Coercion
KW - Constructivism
KW - Discourse
KW - Habermas
KW - Israel
KW - Military service
KW - Persuasion
KW - Rhetoric
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33847302415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33847302415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1354066107074284
DO - 10.1177/1354066107074284
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33847302415
SN - 1354-0661
VL - 13
SP - 35
EP - 66
JO - European Journal of International Relations
JF - European Journal of International Relations
IS - 1
ER -