For whom to govern? The dispute over political legitimacy within the discursive polemics over the mobile retentions in Argentina (2008)

Abstract

This paper is part of a larger research project, which aims to study the discursive polemic (Amossy 2014) regarding a new scheme of agro-export taxes – retenciones – that took place in Argentina in 2008. For this, we analyzed the nodal points (Maingueneau 2010) that organize two opposing dis-courses, aiming to contrast the circulation of ideological signs (Voloshinov 1976), focus of discursive struggles. Focusing upon public speeches of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on the one hand, and of agrarian organizations leaders opposed to the new tax, on the other, in this paper we discuss the accentuations of the sign GOBIERNO. The results reveal a complex dichotomization, underlying diverse conceptions of political legitimation and representation.

Keywords

• discurso político. polémca discursiva. conflicto agrario argentino.