Rhetoric, Democracy, and the Motives of Theory

• In Event: The Rhetorical Character of Political Theory

Abstract

The relationship between theory and democracy is unique in that it immediately implicates rhetoric. Theories of democracy, if they are to be implemented democratically, need to be rhetorics, or ways of speaking that citizens can appreciate and deploy. Otherwise, they risk becoming just another expert discourse to be applied to a social group rather than a democratically empowering collection of argumentative loci.

Author

• Scott Welsh, Appalachian State Univ