The discursive construction of identity and the model of society in the political discourse of M. Macri

Abstract

This interdisciplinary research involving sociology, law and linguistics is part of a much larger research project that looks into the characteristics acquired by the representation of work, workers, working relations, poor people and poverty situations in the political discourse. Based on my proposal of a sociological and linguistic discourse analysis (SLDA), I examine the first presidential messages to Congress by the Argentine presidents from 1983 to 2016, as well as the supplementary texts. In this occasion, I analyze the texts of Mauricio Macri, acting president of Argentina and, in particular, the strategies and resources used both to construct his identity and legitimize his actions and proposals. To this end, I consider comparisons by opposition, the categorization of the others linked to the past, the promises linked to the future, the representation of himself linked to the present, the interpretative models and the representation of poor people and workers. The outcome of this analysis shows how the leader designs –by means of the discursive construction of his identity– the framework within which the different issues addressed acquire a particular meaning, mainly through a constant game between the past, on the one hand, and the present and the future, on the other hand.