From My Cold, Dead Hands
Democratic Consequences of Sacred Rhetoric
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5804657 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Morgan Marietta (0000-0001-8284-3391, Hamilton College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 767-779 |
| Publication date | 2008-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0022381608080742 |
| OpenAlex | W2118945054 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 31 |
| References cited | 88 |
Political rhetoric often appeals to sacred values, or nonnegotiable convictions grounded in transcendent authority rather than reasoned consequences. Sacred convictions are treated as absolutes that resist normal value tradeoffs and cast doubt on the moral standing of citizens who violate them. This study examines the political meaning of this form of persuasion in political domains such as guns, gay marriage, the death penalty, and the environment. Experimental evidence suggests that the distinctive effects of sacred appeals are on citizens' political reasoning and motivation rather than on their expressed opinions. Sacred rhetoric is not more effective in changing minds, but in shifting the nature of public discourse and increasing levels of political intensity. The democratic consequences of sacred rhetoric include greater citizen participation but lesser prospects for meaningful deliberation, a contradictory influence on the health of American democracy
Deliberation · Political rhetoric · Value (mathematics · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Religion and Society Interactions · Social and Intergroup Psychology
When 'memory work' becomes 'memory protest
Moral reframing
One Nation, Two Realities
Religion and Brazilian Democracy
From Gulf to Bridge
The Moral Roots of Environmental Attitudes
Similar Moral Values, Different Agendas? U.S. Politicians’ Use of Moral Language Is Issue-Specific
Costly Values
Analyzing Political Rhetoric in Conservative and Liberal Weblogs Related to the Construction of the “Ground Zero Mosque”
Principle Versus Profit
Multilevel intergroup conflict at the core of climate (in)justice
What's in a Norm? Centering the Study of Moral Values in Scholarship on Norm Interactions
Says who? The role of party cues in explaining the positive and negative consequences of political moral appeals in western Europe
Measuring Moral Rhetoric in Text
Conspiracy Narratives as a Type of Social Myth
Yes WE Can or Yes HE Can? Citizen Preferences Regarding Styles of Representation and Presidential Voting Behavior
The national divide
How framing impacts attitudes about electoral rights for non‐resident citizens
Fired Up by Morality
Value Representation—the Dominance of Ends Over Means in Democratic Politics
Which frame fits? Policy learning with framing for climate change policy attitudes
How Words Do the Work of Politics
Finding the Right Value
The Absolutist Advantage
When Trust Matters
Argument-stretching
The Mobilizing Effect of Parties' Moral Rhetoric
Improving the measurement of biblical interpretation in social science research
Political Grief
Does moral rhetoric fuel or reduce divides between parties and non-copartisan voters
The Language of Extremity
The psychology of attitudes
Social movements in an organizational society
What's fair?
Frontiers in social movement theory
What Americans know about politics and why it matters
The ruling class
The End of History?
Stealth Democracy
New Media and American Politics
Experimental Foundations of Political Science
Science as a Vocation
Four Toward a Deliberative Model of Democratic Legitimacy
Protected Values
Thinking the unthinkable
A Rose by Any Name? The Values Construct
Judgment under Uncertainty
The sacred canopy
Four essays on liberty
The social construction of reality
An economic theory of democracy
Qué pasa con Kansas?
Sour Grapes
The Reasoning Voter
Participation and Democratic Theory
New Social Movements
Reasoning and Choice
Culture, ideology, and strategic framing
The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics
A Preface to Democratic Theory, Expanded Edition
Split
Strong Democracy
Avoiding Politics
Beyond Bipolar Conceptualizations and Measures
The American Ethos
The Logic of Collective Action
Discursive Democracy
Making Democracy Work
Power in Movement
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
The psychology of the unthinkable
A value pluralism model of ideological reasoning
In Defense of American Liberties
Rushed to Judgment
Public ignorance and democratic theory
The Political Culture of Ambivalence
Issue Frames and Group-Centrism in American Public Opinion
Issue Framing Effects on Belief Importance and Opinion
Reexamining the "Minimal Effects" Model in Recent Presidential Campaigns
On the Limits of Framing Effects
Problems, Methods, and Theories in the Study of Politics, or What's Wrong with Political Science and What to Do About it
Bad Civil Society
Taboo Trade‐offs
Value Words and Lizard Brains
Democratic Political Competence
Toward a Psychology of Framing Effects
Beyond marxist state theory
A Hierarchical Model of Attitude Constraint
The Role of Partisan Stereotypes in Information Processing about Political Candidates
Measuring Political Knowledge
Issue Framing and Public Opinion on Government Spending
Structure and Consistency in Public Opinion
College sophomores in the laboratory
The Humanitarian Foundation of Public Support for Social Welfare
Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions
The Still Small Voice of the Herd
The Two Faces of Issue Voting
How are Foreign Policy Attitudes Structured? A Hierarchical Model
Human Nature in Politics
Altering the Foundations of Support for the President Through Priming
Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics
Media Framing of a Civil Liberties Conflict and Its Effect on Tolerance
Shortcuts Versus Encyclopedias
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Between Facts and Norms
Islam Observed
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
| Unique citing works | 31 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,82 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2026 (18) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 30 |