Opponent's Disqualification Strategy in Political Discourse

Abstract

Abstract-In this work we've studied the peculiarities of use of the opponent's disqualification strategy in the French and Georgian pre-election political discourse and also we've analyzed how much the difference between the countries in terms of the levels of development (France as the developed democratic country and Georgia as the developing, post soviet country) defines the specificity of the above strategy. We studied the discourses said by the French politicians, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, and the Georgian politicians Mikheil Saakashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili in 2012. The study was based on the argumentative, contrast and interdisciplinary methods. The analysis results showed that the approach of the French politicians to the opposition is much more balanced in the French discourse and is limited by light allegations compared with the Georgian one, while the heavy allegations are heard in the Georgian discourse in respect to the opponent that is stipulated by still undeveloped democratic institutions in the country.