The Language of Dodging Performative Expectations
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2023-06-23
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en
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Abstract
The US government has intervened in the Arab Spring as a champion of universal rights. However,
the Obama administration did not act as swiftly in all cases. This research focuses on the cases of
Libya and Bahrain, in which the US government was criticised for its hesitant behaviour. As a
frontrunner of universal rights, the Obama administration has to proclaim certain norms. However,
these norms are not always adhered to. Targeted activism holds up a mirror to governments and
pressures them to act accordingly to those norms. In cases of political hypocrisy, politicians dodge
their performative expectations by focusing on norms instead of performance. The theoretical
frameworks show that normative rhetorics can be complicated due to embeddedness and asymmetrical
expectations. A deductive linguistic analysis of presidential rhetoric has shown that normative
sentences do outperform the performative sentences in case of political hypocrisy. I would
recommend incorporating media attention as a mediating effect in the future.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen