The Discursive Construction of Morality in Political Blame Games
Sten Hansson · 2025
Abstract Blame games—symbolic struggles over the blameworthiness or otherwise of some individual or collective actor—are ubiquitous in modern political life. When people talk or write about blame issues in political contexts, they may seek to construct competing representations of character traits of actors, the rights and obligations of actors, and the consequences of their actions. In this chapter, examples from conflict talk surrounding the highly controversial Brexit policy in the British press are analyzed to illustrate how to interpret both offensive and defensive rhetorical moves of political actors from the perspective of morality. It is demonstrated how struggles over blameworthiness can be analyzed in terms of these competing representations to reveal certain (often unexpressed) understandings of morality that opposing sides may be appealing to. The chapter concludes by outlining a set of normative underpinnings for further analysis of discursive blame games.