The Problem of Legitimization in Political Discourse (Case Study of Utterances on Pension Reform)

Abstract

This article is devoted to the linguistic and personological understanding of the issue of legitimization, which is relevant for the political sphere of communication, and to the ways of answering this issue from the linguistic point of view. We have examined the concepts of «legitimacy», «legitimization» in political discourse and the strategies and tactics of the legitimizing activities of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin and the leaders of the opposition parties V.V. Zhirinovsky (LDPR), S.M. Mironov (Fair Russia) and G.A. Zyuganov (CPRF). These strategies and tactics have been singled out as a result of the analysis of the statements of politicians about the pension reform. Statements have been selected by the method of continuous sampling, and then systematized into groups in accordance with certain strategies and tactics. The article also discusses the purpose of using these strategies and tactics, since the main national agenda is the implementation of the pension reform, but politicians of opposition parties can pursue their own: self-affirmation among citizens or blaming the ruling party.