The 2016 Primaries were anything but ordinary: Trump and Cruz represented anti-establishment figures promising to fundamentally alter how the US operated. This thesis investigates the two...Show moreThe 2016 Primaries were anything but ordinary: Trump and Cruz represented anti-establishment figures promising to fundamentally alter how the US operated. This thesis investigates the two forerunners in the Republican Primary and how they utilised different discourses in their bid for The White House. Of particular interest are religious discourses as early commentators discounted Trump’s potential electability among ‘value-voting’ Evangelicals; and populist discourses, as both candidates utilised people’s disaffection with the contemporary system and the discourses surrounding immigrants and other non-American groups to mobilise supporters. To achieve its objectives, this thesis considers twelve speeches by Cruz and Trump that were given during the competitive leg of the 2016 Republican Primary (1st February to the 3rd May). Content and discourse analysis are used, finding that the candidates differed on their use of religious discourse; however, used similar populist discourse. Given the similarity in populist discourses and advantages Cruz had with his religious background the conclusion is drawn that it is not the content that distinguishes Trump, but perhaps his style.Show less
Recognition has been established as a right in political theory, with the argument that it is connected to justice since misrecognition can inflict injury to one’s identity. Meanwhile in political...Show moreRecognition has been established as a right in political theory, with the argument that it is connected to justice since misrecognition can inflict injury to one’s identity. Meanwhile in political theory there is debate about whether recognition drives out redistribution or that redistribution will eventually follow from recognition, however empirical evidence is scarce. One cross-national analysis by Banting et al. (2006) analysed the effect of multicultural recognition policies on redistribution, but concluded that there was no correlation between recognition and redistribution. Nancy Fraser (2000) made a distinction between two different kinds of recognition politics: status and identity politics. She claims that the latter drives out redistribution, while status politics does not. This thesis looks at whether the difference between identity politics and status politics can explain why recognition and redistribution are not correlated in the study by Banting et al., and if identity recognition policies indeed drive out redistribution. The performed cross-national statistical analysis does not support the hypothesis that multicultural identity policies drive out redistribution. However the data does hint in this direction.Show less
