Abstract

The paper examines the way in which social actors position themselves discursively during final debates for presidential elections, both one toward the other, and toward the content of communication, from the perspective of functional theory of political campaign discourse. Functional theory makes some predictions about the discourse functions of political campaign. All five predictions of functional theory were tested in the two televised debates for presidential elections in Romania: 11 and 12 November, at Realitatea TV station, B1 TV respectively. Our study shows similarities with the results obtained in other countries, and highlights on potential differences, which challenges the functional theory assumptions. The functional analysis of political discourse can be regarded as an instrument that helps us diagnose the discursive behaviour of social actors during televised debates, the civilisation of dialogue in the local political life.