Abstract
This paper is concerned with the persuasive effect of legitimation discourse on Tanzanians’ voting decisions. It examines how former President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Dr Wilbroad Slaa deployed language during the 2010 presidential election campaign to elicit support from the electorate. It also looks at non-discursive/non linguistic factors that influenced the same decisions. The data analysed in this paper is from some of their campaign speeches, and from focus group discussions as well. In analysing the data and discussing the findings, the study draws on Theo van Leeuwen’s semantic-functional approach to critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA). The results show that the candidates’ discursive strategies, as well as other factors such as one’s political affiliation, influenced the voting decisions of a fair number of respondents. The paper argues that this happened because most of the respondents lacked critical politico-discursive awareness, which would have opened their eyes if they had.
Recommended Citation
Lukanga, Kelvin Mathayo
(2022)
"The Persuasive Effect of Legitimation Campaign Discourse,"
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 11:
No.
1, Article 2.
DOI: 10.56279/jhss.v11i1.190
Available at:
https://commons.udsm.ac.tz/jhss/vol11/iss1/2
Included in
Politics and Social Change Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons