Persuading Voters: Cycles of Election-Defining Rhetoric

Abstract

Leaders of government within Westminster democracies undertake a key rhetorical task on the day an election is called. Following a visit to the monarch or the vice-regal representative, leaders emerge to give their opening speech of the election campaign. These are moments of definition, moments when leaders rhetorically frame the battle to come. This chapter argues that in Westminster democratic systems, these statements conform to a set pattern of rhetoric which reflects the length of time the government has been in office. This pattern — or ‘speech cycle’ — suggests that electoral rhetoric is not governed solely by the policy issues of the day, and that institutionalised restraints apply to prime ministers in the rhetoric they can legitimately utilise on these occasions.