The British Politicians and the Cognitive and Social Manipulation

Ahmed H. Naif

Abstract


Politicians manipulate their people by using long and influential speeches to affect people’s minds and actions. They, sometimes, violate peoples’ norms when they make people behave against their wills. The aim of this study relies on finding the abuse of power and the strategies of social and cognitive manipulations that were used by some British politicians before the 2003 US led invasion for Iraq. Van Dijk’s Framework of social and cognitive manipulation was adopted for the purpose of data analysis. The findings showed that the British politicians, Tony Blair (The British Prime Minister, 1997-2007) and Jack Straw (The British foreign Minister 2001-2006) abused their power and cognitively (by illegal control of people’s minds) and socially (by making people support them) manipulated their people to support them and vote for the decision of the 2003 war against Iraq.

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References


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