ABSTRACT

Language is vital to the process of transforming political will into social action, 'in fact, any political action is prepared, accompanied, controlled and influenced by language'. In a pluralistic democracy, instead, the principal use of language in politics is for persuasion in debate. In fact, the art of political persuasion in this sense was born with the first democracy in ancient Greece. The Greeks developed what they termed the art of rhetoric, which is none other than the skill of persuasion. In modern times, for many political commentators, then, the word 'rhetoric' enjoys a bad reputation. In democratic countries, then, all the major political parties have press officers, responsible for maintaining relations with and communicating the party's message to the media. Politicians, police, large companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) employ agents to write documents for the media giving a favourable account of their actions and policies.