Working on it The creation of chronological time in political discourse and the democratic meaning of elections

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Following elections, processes of interpretation in the political discourse shape the meaning of elections. I draw from theories of democracy, time, and meaning to posit the concept of chrono-work, and suggest that creative construction of connections between past, present, and future horizons shape the meaning of an election, and that this process is critical for the democratic meaning of elections. With a qualitative analysis of media discourse in two case studies - the 1949 and the 1988 Israeli elections - I show that when these connections form a chronological narrative, an election obtains a democratic meaning, whereas when the narrative is non-chronological, an election's democratic meaning is challenged. I discuss the implications for the role of creative time for the democratic role of elections.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTime Representations in the Perspective of Human Creativity
EditorsAnna Piata, Adriana Gordejuela, Daniel Alcaraz Carrion
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages81-98
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9789027257413
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Publication series

NameHuman Cognitive Processing
Volume75
ISSN (Print)1387-6724

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Funding

The author would like to thank Michal Shamir, Eyal Chowers, and Yaron Ezrahi, Frederic C. Schaffer, Joshua F. Dienstag, and Melvin L. Rogers for their insightful reading of this work along its different stages; to the Tel Aviv University School of Political Science, Governance, and International Relations and the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies for their support in this study; the panelists, discussants, and participants in the conferences in which different parts of this work were presented for their helpful comments; and to the anonymous reviewers and the editors of this edited volume for their thorough reading and suggestions.

FundersFunder number
International Relations
UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies
Tel Aviv University

    Keywords

    • Israel
    • chrono-work
    • election interpretation
    • narrative

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