This essay explores rhetorical strategies that construct institutional authority by analyzing discourse from a Senate subcommittee hearing. The analysis reveals three major strategies hearing participants used to reproduce authority relationships: position markers, pseudo‐requests, and images of order. Participants enacted these strategies through several tactics that enabled them constantly to restructure the institution and adapt it to their individual agendas. The essay argues that, although domination is basic to human organization, all structures are vulnerable to strategic alteration through effective participation.
Western Journal of Speech Communication
Volume 52, 1988 - Issue 4
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