Elite behaviour and elite communication in a divided society
The Belgian federal coalition formation of 2007
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6084426 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kris Deschouwer (0000-0003-1779-2828), Martina Temmerman (0000-0002-1482-8488) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 500-520 |
| Publication date | 2012-12-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Language and Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1569-2159 • E-ISSN: 1569-9862 |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1075/jlp.11.4.02des |
| OpenAlex | W2072962075 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 21 |
Consociational democracy theory attributes an important role to the subgroup elites. They have to build the bridges between the subgroups and govern together in a divided and segmented society. This need for an accommodating elite has been criticized — among others — for its unrealistic expectations. A compromising attitude can hardly be expected when the subgroup leaders need to remain acceptable and legitimate among their rank and file. Post-electoral guarantees for power sharing are not enough to ensure real and functioning power sharing. In this article we focus on Belgium — a textbook example of consociational democracy — and more in particular on the difficult post-election period of 2007. We analyze newspaper interviews with both moderate and radical Belgian political leaders and illustrate how their discourse is torn between loyalty to the rank and file and the necessity of consociational power sharing. A combination of critical discourse and framing analysis shows how this representation is built up linguistically through an interplay of names used to describe oneself, the specific use of the pronouns of the first person plural and consistent metaphors
Critical discourse analysis · Democracy · Elite · Framing (construction · Ideology · Linguistics · Loyalty · Media studies · Plural · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Representation (politics · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Social Media and Politics · History · Law
Analysing Political Discourse
Policy, Office, or Votes?
Debating Consociational Politics
Political man
The Political Culture of Social Welfare Policy
Elite Discourse and Racism
Media Images and the Social Construction of Reality
The favourable factors for consociational democracy
Media(ted) Discourse and Society
The Politics of Accommodation
Consociational Theory, Northern Ireland's Conflict, and its Agreement 2.-What Critics of Consociation Can Learn from Northern Ireland
The Constructionist Approach to Framing
A Developmental Approach to Political Systems
Veto Players and Electoral Reform in Belgium
Framing analysis
The Consociational Model and Its Dangers
Framing
Predicaments of Criticism
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,23 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |