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Political Persuasion and Rhetoric

Persuasion is a communicative action designed to cause others to do or believe something. In politics, persuasion is crucial for campaigns as their purpose is to convince as many as possible to support a cause and perform acts beneficial to that cause. Rhetoric is the art of persuasive communication, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. The power of persuasive communication lies in the strategic use of rhetoric.

Persuasion, Propaganda, and Coercion

Most political communication is loaded with rhetoric and designed to be persuasive to some degree. Persuasive communication is often linked to propaganda, a term the origins of which lie in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Propaganda, however, has become a rather pejorative term, associated with communication within authoritarian states and ...

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