When Politicians Talk: The Cultural Dynamics of Public Speaking

This book details the relationship between culture and the language used by politicians, political candidates, and government officials, in the broad context of political behavior and communication. Employing a variety of perspectives, theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and analytical approaches, chapters focus specifically on the question of HOW cultural factors (such as religion, history, economy, majority/minority relations, social structure, and values) shape the content, nature, and characteristics of the rhetoric that public figures utilize in selected countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East.
 
Contents 
1. Introduction: Assessing Cultural Influences on Political Leaders’ Discourse, By Ofer Feldman 
 
Part I Religion 
2. Deep Culture: The Hebrew Bible and Israeli Political Speech, By Sam Lehman-Wilzig 
3. Qur’anifying Public Political Discourse: Islamic Culture and Religious Rhetoric in Arabic Public Speaking, By Ali Badeen Mohammed Al-Rikaby, Thulfiqar Hussein Altahmazi, and Debbita Ai Lin Tan 
4. The Role of Culture in Turkish Political Discourse: President Recep Tayyip Erdog ̆an and The Justice and Development Party, By Ays ̧e Deniz Ünan Göktan 
5. The Symbolic Construction of a Messiah: Jair Bolsonaro’s Public, Christian Discourse, By Eduardo Ryô Tamaki, Ricardo Fabrino Mendonça, and Matheus Gomes Mendonça Ferreira 
 
Part II History, Economy, Climate/Geography, and Majority/Minority Relations 
6. Rationality and Moderation: German Chancellors’ Post-War Rhetoric, By Melani Schröter 
7. Talking Politics: The Influence of Historical and Cultural Transformations on Polish Political Rhetoric, By Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska and Agnieszka Kampka 
8. A Tale of Two Prime Ministers: The Influence of Greek Culture in Post-Crises Political Speech, By Christos Kostopoulos 
9. Rhetoric, Culture, and Climate Wars: A Discursive Analysis of Australian Political Leaders’ Responses to the Black Summer Bushfire Crisis, By Nicholas Bromfield, Alexander Page, and Kurt Sengul 
10. The Core Socio-Cultural Building Blocks Underlying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speeches to the United Nations General Assembly, By Yuval Benziman 
 
Part III Social Structure, Values, Popular and New-Culture Elements 
11. The President as Macho: Machismo, Misogyny, and the Language of Toxic Masculinity in Philippine Presidential Discourse, By Gene Segarra Navera 
12. Decoding Japanese Politicians’ Rhetoric: Socio-Cultural Features of Public Speaking, By Ofer Feldman 
13. Culture and Politics in Contemporary China: A Cultural-Rhetorical Analysis of Xi Jinping’s Three Speeches in 2019, By Xing Lu 
14. Popular Culture in the Service of Populist Politics in Spain: Pablo Iglesias’ Parliamentary Speech as Leader of the Podemos Party, By Francisco José Sánchez-García 
15. Donald Trump: Dividing America Through New-Culture Speech, By Michael Alan Krasner 
 
Part IV Cultural Convergence and Discourse Divergence 
16. Commentary: Choice and Innovation in the Interaction of Political Discourse with Culture, By Richard Anderson 
 
Index 

Ofer Feldman is a professor of Political Psychology and Behavior at the Faculty of Policy Studies, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of more than 90 journal articles and book chapters, and more than 100 encyclopedia items, in the fields of political psychology/behavior, communication studies, and Japanese politics, and the sole author, co-author, sole editor, and co-editor of 16 books and monographs, including Talking Politics in Japan Today (2004), Seiji shinrigaku [Political Psychology] (in Japanese, 2006), The Psychology of Political Communicators (2019, with Sonja Zmerli), and The Rhetoric of Political Leadership (2020).