How might Politicians use persuasive language to reinforce their
Influential power?

Introduction

This investigating will focus upon the topic ‘Language and Power’, throughout it will explore how power plays a massive part in politics and how politicians use it to make them seem electable. This aspect within the investigation has been chosen because this is an area of interest and a topic I particularly enjoyed whilst studying the AS course. Not only this, but the power section, in my opinion, has the most interesting theory within it but the investigation will tie into another area which equally fascinates me, this being UK politics. This has always been something that I have followed with passion, with this in mind; it has led me to question the very topic.
I would like to investigate how politicians use their language, to make them seem more electable and make them seem more favourable to the electorate. From this the Investigation will discover to what extent an election speech impacts on voting.

Thus, this investigation aims to explore:

• How politicians use a range of persuasive techniques to reinforce their influential power.
I expect that the politician who uses persuasion most effectively will seem more favourable to the electorate. Politicians that aren’t confident may hinder their chances with the electorate, even though they use persuasive techniques. This would show them as a weaker leader, even though their speech when read may be the strongest.

• To what extent might political rhetoric directly influence the decisions of potential voters?
This is also key to discuss how the politician themselves deliver their speech; we would be able to see if the electorate responds to a more confident speaker, regardless how influential the speech is on paper.