Bickering, Insults and Interruptions : Describing the US Presidential Election Debates 2016 using a Deliberative Democratic perspective.

Sammanfattning: This essay studies the climate of discussion during the US Presidential election debates 2016 from a perspective of Deliberative democratic discussion criteria. It uses a statistical analysis to examine and describe the climate of discussion during the debates. The criteria are based on the theoretical work of James S. Fishkin and Robert C. Luskin, which closely points out five compontents/factors needed to get a healthy and reasonable climate of discussion. The essay suggests that the climate of discussion during the US elections has taken place on two different “battleground” (Outside and Inside formal debating forums). It further suggests that outside climate of discussion has been dominated by ugly tricks and “dirty talking” and the inside formal debating forums climate of discussion has been reasonable and healthy. The results of the analysis show that the US Presidential election debates have broken this pattern, mainly due to the republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.