Rhetorically defining a social institution: how leaders have framed same-sex marriage

ABSTRACT

Questions about the definition, meaning and limits of marriage have become a topic of fierce political debate in advanced Western democracies over the past decade as political leaders have sought to grapple with the issue of same-sex marriage. The rhetorical choices of leaders as they have made the case for or against moving away from traditional definitions of marriage have been central to shaping the national debate within different jurisdictions. This article applies the theoretical lens of ‘discursive institutionalism’ (Schmidt) and the analytical purchase of ‘rhetorical political analysis’ (Finlayson) to compare the rhetoric of Prime Minister David Cameron in the UK, Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Australia, and President Obama in the USA. We argue that Cameron and Obama have, in different ways, each sought to discursively re-define the institution of marriage by drawing on elements already endogenous to the institution itself.

过去十年里，在发达的西方民主国家，政治领袖们为同性婚姻问题闹得不可开交，有关婚姻的界定、意义、局限性也就成了政治上激烈辩论的话题。领导人认同传统的婚姻定义也好，不认同也罢，他们的修辞选择对于形成不同辖区的辩论至关重要。本文采用施密特的“话语体制”理论视角，并借用芬莱森的“修辞政治分析”来比较英国首相卡梅隆、澳大利亚总理托尼·艾伯特以及美国总统奥巴马的修辞。作者认为，卡梅隆和奥巴马都以不同的方式努力在话语上重新定义婚姻制度，采用了已然外在于该制度的元素。

KEYWORDS:

• Rhetoric
• marriage policy
• discursive institutionalism

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Daniela Di Piramo for her valuable research assistance, and their colleagues from the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University, the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of Tasmania, and the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge for their collegial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dennis Grube is Lecturer in Public Policy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Elizabeth van Acker is Senior Lecturer in Politics in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University.

Notes

1. Abbott was deposed as prime minister by a party-room vote in September 2015, to be replaced by Malcolm Turnbull. Prime Minister Turnbull has previously voiced his personal support for same-sex marriage, but the issue remains one of debate within the governing Coalition. At the time of writing, the current government's policy commitment is to hold a plebiscite on same-sex marriage in 2017.

2. There are many ways to characterise this process of contestation through argument. For example, one form of re-framing is paradiastole, which has been interpreted as the rhetorical re-description of a vice as a virtue (see Skinner 2007).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University.