Cover Osteuropa 11-12/2006

In Osteuropa 11-12/2006

The Fight for Law and Justice
The Political Rhetoric of the Kaczyńskis

Andrea Huterer


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

The language of the brothers Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński lends itself to an analysis of the president’s and the prime minister’s worldview. The language contains key words and uses methods which polarise, discredit and exclude. The irony is that the Kaczyńskis’ Manichaean figures of speech, concepts of enemies and insinuations lie in the tradition of Communist thought which the politicians claim to transcend. What is more: The Kaczyńskis’ metaphors and techniques stem from the classical arsenal of manipulative rhetoric which Adorno exposed in his studies of authoritarian character.

(Osteuropa 11-12/2006, pp. 53–68)