Navigating Coercion in Political Rhetoric: Alternating Strategies to Cope with Intervention by the Troika in Portugal

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  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable #12

Abstract

This article examines how political actors of a nation-state cope with coercion exerted on them by an external source in political discourse. Our empirical case is intervention by the Troika in Portugal. The coercive setting compromises national sovereignty and integrity. How do national actors manage this setting without jeopardizing their responsibility and institutional legitimacy? We approach the question by analysing two diverse political arenas: parliamentary debates and public accounts by political leaders in the media. The study evidences a variation in strategies to manage coercion: the politicians use both depoliticization and relativization. While discourses of depoliticization are frequent in media, in parliamentary debates the predominant strategy is to emphasize the aspect of agency by relativizing the power of the Troika. Both strategies serve to portray responsibility in the face of external intervention, but in different discursive environments political actors use different rhetorical tools to work on their institutional appearance and legitimacy.

Authors

• Laia Pi Ferrer, Tampere University

• Hanna Rautajoki, Tampere University