Political discourse and ideology

Abstract

This paper analyses the influence of ideologies on political discourse, in terms not only of content but also of form and interaction, defining ideology in the broadest sense of basic beliefs shared by members of a group and understanding political discourse to be a class of genres defined by a social domain, namely that of politics. The ways in which ideologically based beliefs are exhibited in discourse and discursive evidence in the interplay of several ideologies are analysed in the form of a debate on asylum seekers in the British House of Commons. Parliamentary debates are particularly revealing for these purposes because their text and content exhibit the social cognitions of political parties and their members. An analysis of this particular debate shows how political discourse in general, and parliamentary debates in particular, are replete with ideological expressions and rhetorical tropes at all levels.