A theoretical modeling of the relations between political society & civic societyA relational appproach to political marketing practices of the 2013 iranian presidential election

Resumen

This thesis represents an empirical investigation of the discourse network of statements between candidates during the 2013 Iranian presidential election campaign. The aims of this body of work are manifold. First, I argue that political marketing is not an independent discipline due to the lack of authentic ontological dimensions, but rather it is an approach within political communication. Second, I propose the hybrid relational public sphere model as the first theoretical model encompassing key ontological dimensions of political communication under one single framework. This theory facilitates understanding horizontal relations between two lateral sides of public sphere (political society and civic society) in three vertical layers of structure, representation (discursive and textual), and interaction. Third, I claim that many strategies and tactics of political communication (and political marketing) including political branding are re-definable using this model. Consequently, political branding is described as a discursive network of symbolic and functional values that have relations within civic societys lifestyle and is differentiated from other brands. Fourth, adapting the relational paradigm (sociology) for politics in particular for political communication (what I call relational politics), I clarify how the hybrid relational public sphere model is compatible with relational paradigm. Moreover, re-interpreting mainstream political marketing theories through the proposed theory and relational paradigm (relational sociology), I argue that political marketing should be called dialectical political communication or co-deterministic political communication. Fifth, due to the necessity of mixed methodology to operationalize the proposed theories, I clarify that while network analysis is necessary to study various types of substances as relations, various qualitative methods such as discourse analysis are crucial to explain the relations as substances as well. Ultimately, in order to reduce the amount of input for this analysis, I chose to include only statements made in publicly televised debates and interviews. The result of this study is that Rouhanis discourse shares a network with other candidates, a fact that resulted in the formation of coalitions. Furthermore, his discourse was the most distinguishable from others in that it appeared more connected to civil societys needs and wants, a distinct feature of his brand which led to his victory. All these relations are extensively dependent on symbolic political values, which signifies that Rouhanis discourse is mainly symbolic rather than functional. Keywords: political communication, political marketing, political brand, political society, civic society, relational paradigm, discourse network analysis, discourse analysis, presidential election, Iran