Rhetoric and Authority in a Polarized Transition: The Case of China’s Stock Market

Abstract

How do actors in positions of authority attempt to justify their right to rule while introducing controversial institutional practices that potentially delegitimate their authority? China’s reform leaders have found themselves in a legitimacy conundrum when they established and developed the stock market, yet have been able to assert a central role for the party-state in managing the stock market. Using a critical rhetorical perspective, we analyze how actors use “rhetorical genres,” that is, argumentation and narration with differing content and style, to construct new roles of the speaker and speaker–audience relationships that imply new bases of authority, and how these rhetorical genres can be conceptualized as “discursive spaces” that could accommodate contradictions in the rhetorical situations characterized by polarization in ideologies and interests.

Rhetorical Enthymeme: The Forgotten Trope and its Methodological Import

“…Decisions of network television programmers were framed as appropriate, legitimate and rational through employment of reputation, imitation and genre rhetorical strategies (Bielby and Bielby, ). Chinese government officials employed different rhetorical genres to frame themselves as defendants of the stock market's legitimacy, as educators of the public and community builders, and as managers focusing on the success of the market in order to manage the contradictions of a stock market operating in a socialist institutional context (Li et al ., ). Rhetorical studies may also incorporate an explicit concern with issues of power, politics and ideology, aiming to shed light on contentious social arrangements within a critical perspective (Symon, ; Zachry, ).…”

“…Such empirical applications of rhetoric have transcended the classical analytical approach focused on particular rhetorical devices or other technical elements, seeking rather to understand the nature and effects of broader rhetorical strategies (Sillince and Suddaby, ; Symon, ) or rhetorical practices (Jarzabkowski and Sillince, ). These are identifiable patterns of how particular rhetorical techniques are consistently employed by agents, in pursuit of certain goals, highlighting the intentionality (Li et al ., ) and agency (Symon, ) of individuals in employing rhetoric. These goals for example could include enhancing the legitimacy of an innovation (Suddaby and Greenwood, ), rationalizing particular organizational choices (Bielby and Bielby, ), gaining commitment to multiple strategic goals (Jarzabkowski and Sillince, ) or challenging the implementation of a new technology that can alter existing power dynamics (Heracleous and Barrett, ).…”

Institutional work by market-shaping public actors

“…Changing taxation (Buhr, 2012;Zhang and White, 2016) Enforcing (Bertella, 2017;Jolly, 2017;Li et al, 2018;Litrico and David, 2017;Zhao et al, 2017) Financial backing (Bartley, 2007;Benn et al, 2014;Bohnsack et al, 2015;Canales, 2016;Cao et al, 2014;Elliot, 2016;Gasbarro et al, 2018;Glassmann, 2008;Jolly, 2017;Kukk et al, 2016;Thomas and Thomas, 2018;Zhang and White, 2016) Gatekeeping (Glassmann, 2008;Jolly, 2017;Yep, 2015;Zietsma and Lawrence, 2010) Legislating (Br es and Gond, 2014;Koene, 2006) Rule-and price-setting (Bartley, 2007;Bohnsack et al, 2015;Jolly, 2017;Li et al, 2018;Walker et al, 2014;Zhang and White, 2016 (Binz et al, 2016) Educating (Binz et al, 2016;Canales, 2016;Glassmann, 2008;St al, 2015) Lobbying (Binz et al, 2016;Kukk et al, 2016) Mimicking (Binz et al, 2016) Orchestrating collaboration (Bartley, 2007;Canales, 2016;Jolly, 2017) Researching…”

“…Thus, our study gives an indication of the important roles that public actors play with respect to institutional work in different types of market-shaping contexts (creating, maintaining or disrupting). (Bertella, 2017;Jolly, 2017;Li et al, 2018;Litrico and David, 2017;Zhao et al, 2017) Financial backing Providing financial support (funding and guarantees) to market actors n/a (Bartley, 2007;Benn et al, 2014;Bohnsack et al, 2015;Canales, 2016;Cao et al, 2014;Elliot, 2016;Gasbarro et al, 2018;Glassmann, 2008;Jolly, 2017;Kukk et al, 2016;Thomas and Thomas, 2018;Zhang and White, 2016) Gatekeeping Controlling access to market with various permits and licences FIN, SWE and NZ (Glassmann, 2008;Jolly, 2017;Yep, 2015 (Br es and Gond, 2014;Gurses and Ozcan, 2015;Jolly, 2017) Defining market boundaries and terms Developing definitions and language in the market FIN, SWE and NZ (Binz et al, 2016) Educating Educ...…”

Innovative Strategies of Training Mechanism of Higher Education for New Entrepreneurial Talents

“…Today, more and more individuals and groups are joining the entrepreneurial wave with the market economy reform of China, the rapid development of new technologies, and government incentives. The increasingly frequent entrepreneurial activities become the important driving force for promoting social and economic development (Li et al, 2018 ; Yi and Duval-Couetil, 2018 ). According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the early entrepreneurial activity index of China ranks first, and it is higher than that of developed countries, like the United States and Japan.…”