The dramaturgy of incivility

Political incorrectness and its threat to democratic life

Bibliographic Data

ID19220296
AuthorsGastón Souroujon (0000-0003-4217-5012, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-05-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/07255136261452265
OpenAlexW7162459311
LanguageEN
References cited18

This article examines the transformation of the dramaturgical principles that structure political behaviour in contemporary democracies. It distinguishes between two models of self-presentation: the authenticity model, which privileges self-expression, emotional proximity and the blurring of public and private boundaries − a model consolidated through the rise of television as a dominant medium, and the model of political incorrectness, which emerges in the twenty-first century and radically reconfigures the previous dramaturgical order by enabling incivility, verbal aggression and disregard for democratic norms. This displacement undermines the institutional, moral and epistemic mediations that sustain liberal democratic life. The consolidation of this model is closely linked to the expansion of social media

Democracy · Democratic consolidation · Dramaturgy · Everyday life · Order (exchange) · Politics · Social movement · Social order · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Social Media and Politics · Sociology and Norbert Elias

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