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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 22:1 (2023) ► pp.66–86

Legitimation in revolutionary discourse

A critical examination of the discourse of Jerry John Rawlings

| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
ORCID logo | University of the West of England
ORCID logo | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This paper analyzes the legitimation strategies used by Jerry John Rawlings, a Ghanaian revolutionary leader, to license his revolutionary actions, including political enemy executions and a crackdown on corrupt practices. It adapts and extends van Leeuwen’s legitimation framework by demonstrating how Rawlings exploited historical memory and the notion of sacrifice in conjunction with the strategies of authorization, rationalization and moralization to formulate his revolutionary rhetoric. The analysis reveals that the legitimation strategies enabled Rawlings to project a patriot-cum-nationalist identity as well as construct himself as a noble revolutionary mandated by the people of Ghana to represent their interests, protect them from evildoers and lead the process of social transformation. The study illustrates the persuasive power of revolutionary discourses in terms of how they function ideologically in the message they communicate (or exaggerate) and conceal.

Keywords: critical discourse studies, political discourse analysis, legitimation strategies, revolutionary discourses, African politics, Jerry John Rawlings
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Context: Jerry John Rawlings and the 1979 and 1981 revolutions in Ghana
  • 3.Analytic framework
    • 3.1Legitimation through authorization, moralization and rationalization
    • 3.2Legitimation through historicization and the claim of sacrifice
  • 4.Data and analytical procedure
  • 5.Legitimizing revolutionary discourse
    • 5.1Authorization
    • 5.2Rationalization
    • 5.3Moralization
    • 5.4Historicization
    • 5.5Claim of sacrifice
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22002.gan
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