The Political Power of Words

The Birth of Pro-democratic Discourse in the Nineteenth Century in the United States and France

Bibliographic Data

ID6345375
AuthorsFrancis Dupuis-Déri (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Francis Dupuis‐déri (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume52
Issue1
Pages118-134
Publication date2004-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00467.x
OpenAlexW1993736172
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited45

Comparing France and the United States, I propose a general model for assessing the birth of pro-democratic discourse. I first explain why founders of the modern ‘democracies' were openly and vehemently anti-democratic. Next, I focus on two types of situation where the word ‘democracy’ is used on the political stage – when political actors want to distinguish themselves from their opponents and when political actors want to sanctify the political regime. The first case covers three specific modes of the use of the term ‘democracy’: (i) distinguishing oneself negatively by discrediting the opponent (the term ‘democracy’ is pejorative and associated with the ‘enemy’); (ii) distinguishing oneself positively by asserting one's worthiness (the term ‘democracy’ is positive and associated with ‘us’); (iii) fighting for an exclusive claim to the term in order to set oneself apart (several camps proclaim themselves ‘democrat’ and mutually accuse each other of usurping or even ‘stealing’ the title). I conclude that the use of the word ‘democracy’ generally results from a single motivation – to increase one's own political power or to diminish the power of one's opponents

Adversary · Democracy · Pejorative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Term (time · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Political Theory and Influence · Religion and Society Interactions