Политическая риторика как квазисимволизация?

Социологическое обозрение. 2016. Т. 15. № 2. С. 68–88.

Musikhin G. I.

The article considers rhetoric as the main channel of argumentation in the context of political symbolization. The article draws the substance of political symbolization from the theory of the symbol, introduced by German Romantics. Political symbolization is conceptualized in terms of the multiplicity of unstated meanings in communication within a political context. The findings of the article have a significant implication in that political symbolization is a unpredictable phenomenon; it becomes “visible” as if it has been happening in reality. However, in the collective perception due to the dispositions of interpreters, political symbolization is presented as more essential than the viscera of life. The author shows how the mechanism of persuasion may become an independent, productive source in the sphere of politics. Thus, the mechanism of persuasion cannot be simplified to the translation of the ideas, but it is also capable of producing new meanings. In this framework, political argumentation can be used not only for promoting ideas in the sphere of politics, but might produce politics itself. Arguments that might be marked as “true” or “false” are transformed into judgments of the ideologically normative language. Therefore, the ability “to impose” one’s ideological perspective on the public gains crucial importance as it consists of axiological and cognitive elements. Resources taken from argumentation mechanisms maintain a real political force in the process of agenda-setting. However, not any rhetorical message appealing to a specific political community will lead to the steady and efficient process of collective self-identification, which is always followed by the production of new political meanings through collective judgments.

Keywords: символ, риторика, rhetoric, political argumentation, политическая аргументация, немецкий романтизм, German romanticism, political symbolization, политическая символизация, mechanisms of persuasion, механизмы убеждения