Strategies for representing the “consolidation” category in the Russian president’s conjunctive discourse (2000-2015)

Given their special place in the field of creating meanings and their interpretations, government leaders have the opportunity to offer society a certain set of consolidation values, therefore setting the basis for molding any desired form of solidarity within a society. In light of this fact, analyzing official conjunctive discourse seems to be promising, since it would enable identifying what sort of consolidation is broadcasted to society, as well as defining the tendencies for the development of conjunctive processes. This article displays a reconstructed model of consolidation which is broadcasted to Russian society via the discourse of Russia’s current president V. Putin. Careful attention is paid to analyzing strategies for representing the concepts of “consolidation” and “solidarity”, as well as their substantial component. A discursive-historic approach developed by an Austrian scientist named R. Wodak was used while conducting this research. The research base is mostly built upon V. Putin’s annual speeches given to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, which pose special interest to the goals of the analysis in question, considering that they reflect the main tendencies and changes in the current political course. The analytical case also includes other public speeches given by V. Putin, which were dedicated to consolidating society. The study concludes that consolidation within the examined rhetoric is presented, for the most part, as an act of civic responsibility, expressed by the population’s loyalty to its leader and his political course, and as one of the key conditions for Russia’s socio-economic development and for ensuring its national security, so therefore it is a component which comprises the notion of patriotism. The article comes to the conclusion that, although the examined conjunctive discourse undoubtedly serves a purpose of mobilizing the majority with their leader, regardless, it cannot provide long-term social consolidation, for it exacerbates aggression and violence in society instead of developing conjunctive communication. Therefore, as concluded by the author, such an approach only creates the illusion of social consolidation, while leaving real problems of social disintegration outside the boundaries of social discourse.

political discourse, consolidation, solidarity, discourse analysis, conjunction, discursive-historic approach, discursive strategies

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