Author's Keywords: discourse, melodrama, legitimacy, 9/11, state power, Weber, Habermas	Convention All Academic Convention makes running your annual conference simple and cost effective. It is your online solution for abstract management, peer review, and scheduling for your annual meeting or convention. Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! Click here for more information.
Association: Name: American Political Science Association URL: http://www.apsanet.org
Citation: URL: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p152838_index.html Direct Link: HTML Code:

Anker, Elisabeth. and Scherer, Matthew. "Political Theory/ Political Discourse: Constructing Moral and Religious Legitimacy for Public Action" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA, Aug 31, 2006 <Not Available>. 2009-05-24 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p152838_index.html>

Anker, E. and Scherer, M. , 2006-08-31 "Political Theory/ Political Discourse: Constructing Moral and Religious Legitimacy for Public Action" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA Online <PDF>. 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p152838_index.html

Publication Type: Proceeding Abstract: Scholars of American politics generally assume that the American state derives its legitimacy from the institutional structure and electoral process created by the Constitution. Underlying this common presupposition is a theory of legitimation, which assumes legitimacy to be an impartial designation, one derived from methodical measures of power relations in political orders. This wisdom, however common, harbors dangerous misunderstandings of how legitimacy operates in contemporary American political life. Its assumptions about neutrality, objective judgment, and the innate validity of certain criteria ignore the normalizing operations of power that currently function to secure state legitimacy. This paper argues that a melodramatic form of political discourse helps to facilitate the conditions in which legitimacy for expansive state action is generated. Melodramatic discourse constructs America as a good, virtuous nation that has been victimized by an evil enemy, and is mandated to enact heroic retribution on the forces that caused its injury. Using discourse analysis of speeches given after 9/11 , I argue that through melodramatic political discourse, the exercise of political power by the state is simultaneously cultivated, legitimated, and depoliticized.

From Politics to Evil: Melodrama, Moralism, and National Victimization

Political ideology, moral foundations, and beliefs about good and evil

From Politics to Evil: Melodrama and State Power