Argumentation, political

Wodak, Ruth Emily (2016) Argumentation, political. In: International Encyclopedia of Political Communication :. Elsevier. ISBN 9781118541555

Abstract

The “argumentative turn” in policy-making entails the close and systematic study of policy-making in manifold contexts while taking account of audience orientation, genre, topic, and the specific institutional space. Various models of, and theoretical approaches to, argumentation theory are presented in detail while highlighting Toulmin's and Walton's seminal approaches to argumentation theory. Then, more linguistically oriented methodologies such as Pragma-Dialectics and New Rhetoric are discussed and integrated with interdisciplinary approaches in (Critical) Discourse Studies, such as the Discourse-Historical Approach. Analysis of newspaper articles as well as of narratives by employing argumentation analysis provide an important entry-point for political scientists and communication theorists to integrating political theory with linguistic and argumentation theory. Moreover, the Aristotelian formal concept of topoi is contrasted with more content-dependent concepts of topoi such as recently developed by Wengeler and Kienpointner which allow understanding and explaining of condensed everyday common-sense debates about sensitive issues such as migration.