Food for Thought: A Longitudinal Investigation of Reflection-Promoting Speech in Televised Election Debates (1985–2019)

Abstract

In televised election debates, politicians confront each other side-by-side to publicly debate their political viewpoints. As a result, these debates have the potential to promote reflective reasoning in citizens. However, concerns are voiced regularly about politicians’ increasing use of one-liners, slogans, and empty phrases, and decreasing use of elaborate and thoughtful argumentation, which may lower the debates’ reflection-promoting potential. Despite concerns, systematic empirical evidence testing whether reflection-promoting speech is declining is extremely scarce. This study contributes to filling this gap by (1) identifying four reflection-promoting speech components, that is, provision of justifications, substantive information, accessible communication, and engagement with others’ perspectives and (2) conducting a longitudinal quantitative content analysis (1985–2019) of Belgian election debates through the lens of their reflection-promoting potential. The results of all studied speech components point in the same direction: reflection-promoting speech in election debates has not declined, showing that allegations surrounding debates should be considered with caution.

The Grand Finale

“…Still, it contributes very little to our understanding of the power of debates (Jarman, 2005). Debates can play a positive role in democracy by fostering voters' reflection and evaluation of different political positions and perspectives (Turkenburg & Goovaerts, 2022). Indeed, more discussions among citizens are sparked by viewing television debates than by any other election event .…”