(Re)Charting the (Dis)Courses of Faith and Politics, or Rhetoric and Democracy in the Burkean Barnyard

From the Parlor to the Barnyard: Obama and Holder on Race

“…24 As DePalma, Ringer, and Webber conclude, ''An unending democratic dialectic in which all perspectives are represented and no single voice dominates represents the ideal status of affairs for Burke.'' 25 This Burkean concept of democracy correlates with Chantal Mouffe's concept of agonistic pluralism. Addressing the need for open confrontation of ideas and interests so that essentialist concepts of constitutive identities such as gender, race, and class do not completely displace political participation, Mouffe writes:…”

“…They characterize this view as ''one in which all viewpoints find a seat at the democratic table.'' 22 Whether truly qualifying as ''anarchic'' or not, Burke's dialectic view of democracy is grounded in his consistent call for the intermingling of multiple perspectives as a means of more fully understanding reality. In the appendix to The Philosophy of Literary Form, Burke forcefully asserts this notion of democracy as ''a device for institutionalizing the dialectic process, by setting up a political structure that gives full opportunity for the use of competition to a cooperative end.''…”

Mapping US Humanitarian Aid: A Pentadic Cartography of Michael Leavitt'sHealth Diplomacy

“…This privileging of scene led to a motivational vocabulary based in a philosophy of materialism, allowed only a consideration of how the physical landscape could be changed to prevent natural disasters and, thereby, closed off discussion of rethinking the relationship between humans and nature. Likewise, in comparing the apparently competing rhetorics of Sharon Crowley and Barack Obama on the relationships between religion and democracy, DePalma, Ringer, and Webber (2008) found that a pentadic mapping reveals similar motivational vocabularies. In their analysis, DePalma and colleagues found that both speakers, ''feature one ratio, scene-agency, to the exclusion of others'' (p. 328).…”

No Jack Kennedy: Mitt Romney's “Faith in America” Speech and the Changing Religious-Political Environment

“…Several scholars have utilized a dramatistic approach to consider competing interpretations of an act and why one view ultimately was more widely accepted (Miller, 2004;Rendahl, 1999;Tonn, Endress, & Diamond, 1993) or to evaluate various texts, particularly when aspects of the pentad help illuminate how an act occurred or why a particular act was unsuccessful (Birdsell, 1987;Blankenship, Fine, & Davis, 1983;DePalma, Ringer, & Webber, 2008). Other scholars have also employed Burke's pentad to consider the effectiveness or appropriateness of specific messages (Edwards, 1998;Fisher, 1974;Kelley, 1987Kelley, , 1988Kenny, 2001;Lule, 1993;Rushing, 1986;Solomon, 1985).…”