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Political communication constitutes a powerful form of public talk in which not only politicians try to persuade citizens about their programs but also citizens engage in forms of public debate that ground democracy and political participation. These 2 sessions will explore different forms of political communication, such as debates, speeches, participatory consultative sessions, and grassroot democracy meetings. On the one hand, we will analyze classical political speeches addressed to a wide audience, paying special attention to how politicians interact with the public, and how the public responds, for instance in applauding or booing. On the other hand, we will analyze participatory debates in which citizens have the possibility of making and defending their proposals and engaging in discussions about public issues. On the one hand, we have professional speakers intervening in highly asymmetric encounters, on the other hand we focus on ordinary people who are not always used to speak in public, and engage in more symmetric exchanges. The diversity of interactional formats enables us to reflect about how talk can move people, the conditions of successful political claims, as well as the conditions favoring (or not) participative equalitarian democratic debates. Looking at political speeches from an interactional perspective makes possible to include the public and its agency in the analysis, not only as generically present or reactive but as it is mobilized in detail and as it responds in precise ways, contributing to the political event, even when it is highly asymmetric. |
