As fronteiras da mudança: um olhar retórico sobre os discursos de Dilma e de Aécio

Abstract

The free electoral propaganda embraces a significant part of the Brazilian elections: it facilitates the contact between the candidate and the elector for being broadcasted by opened network TV. Nevertheless, we notice that, since the 1989 elections, in which Collor was elected and set Brazil’s redemocratization milestone, its content brings attacks to opponents, vague proposals (we will enhance the health service, toughen up the public security etc.) and change the country. Therefore, each four years, candidates claim to be able to change the life of Brazilians and realize the utopia of a country with no misery, egalitarian, safe, with access to education and health of quality. This vagueness that pervades the campaign speeches reflects in the presentation of proposals, especially those that are beyond the commonplace, such as border policies. Given these facts, we investigate, in light of the Rhetorical Theory of Discourse – RTD (DITTRICH, 2008), how Dilma Rousseff and Aécio Neves i) present themselves as the change Brazil needs and ii) in this change, how the frontier policies are showed in the 2014 general elections. To do so, we transcribed the speeches of the propagandas that had in their content the words change (and its other forms changed, changing, (will) change) and frontier and selected four propagandas of each candidate in the first round and on – regarding to frontier policies – from the second round. Based on the theoretical assumptions of the Classic Rhetoric and Neo-Rhetoric, the RTD allows us to understand the discourse dynamics in three argumentative dimensions: rationalization – that covers the arguments used by the orator, being technical, sensitizing and legitimating; politic – deals with power relations between the orator and the auditorium; and aesthetic – regarding to the way the discourse is built. In order to understand the persuasive nature of the discourses, we present an analysis of the three argumentative dimensions in each transcribed speech: which arguments, politic and aesthetic strategies were used so as to reason the change in each candidate. Still, we cannot ignore the nature of the electoral political discourse, with specific time, place and settings. Thus, we brought studies on Discourse (CHARAUDEAU, 2008; VAN DIJK 2000; FAIRCLOUGH, 1941 and others) and on Electoral Political Marketing (TORQUATO, 2014; MANHANELLI, 1988; VAZ, 2003 and others). The results came as expected: Dilma, as being candidate to reelection, defends a changing cycle that has been happening since Lula was president; Aécio, on the other hand, claims to be what the country needs to change and reasons a stagnation of the country. As to the frontier politics, only one speech was found on the subject and its presentation was the same in both candidates: improve security in order to reduce violence and narcotics trafficking.