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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 16:5 (2017) ► pp.683–705

Constructing ‘the French people’ – On Sarkozy’s populism

| CNRS, France | Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, France
ORCID logo | University of Warwick, United Kingdom

Election campaigns represent a particular moment of political practice in democracies where political strategy and political discourse become one activity. Campaigns take effect through the speeches of candidates communicated to the electorate. This article analyses speeches of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaigns in 2007 and 2012. Based on text statistical methods developed in French discourse analysis it examines his political position and his rhetorical techniques. In comparison to other presidents of the Fifth Republic, Sarkozy’s discourse seems to be freed from typical party political positions. Whilst favouring direct encounters with the audience and pretending to speak to the whole nation he is embodying a form of populism which bestows his image of a charismatic leader.

Keywords: Political discourse, election campaign, Sarkozy, logometry, populism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Logometry – a computer assisted approach to discourse
  • 3.Constructing ‘the French people’
    • 3.1‘Us’ (the people) against ‘them’ (the elites)
    • 3.2Compassion and affect
  • 4.Typical grammatical forms
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.16009.may
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