Politically Speaking: A Worldwide Examination of Language Used in the Public Sphere

This work details and examines the characteristics, nature, and content of the language used in the public sphere of various Western and non-Western societies; the functions language plays in the polity; and the link between culture, political culture, and the language that politicians and other elites, as well as the public, use in their symbolic interaction. The essays describe and analyze the topic of political language from different perspectives--political science, psychology, philosophy, sociology, gender studies, economics, religious, public administration, mass communication, and linguistics. Essays examine the discourse of political press reports and TV interviews, political orations and election propaganda, legalistic, political-philosophic, and religious treatises. Throughout it provides an overview of the state of the art of political language, utilizing various research methods and disciplines.