THESIS EVALUATION
Name of the candidate: Mai Green Petersen
Title and length of the thesis: Democracy and good governance in Nicaragua under President Arnoldo Alemán - a critical discourse analysis. The thesis is 106 pages, excluding the bibliography. It gives a faultless and excellent summary in Spanish. In addition, three speeches by President Arnoldo Alemán are included as well as outlines of the analyses, a total of 70 pages.
Submitted: 14/9-2001
Examiner: Anne Marie Ejdesgaard Jeppesen
External examiner: Hans Krause Hansen
Date of final assessment: 2/1-2002
JOINT ASSESMENT
Taking as her point of departure a recent political conflict in Nicaragua between the president, Arnoldo Alemán, and the Comptroller General, which made DANIDA express concern for democracy in the country, in the formulation of the problem, Mai Green Petersen (MGP) raises the questions: 'In what sense has Arnoldo Alemán committed an offence against the principle of good governance? How has he used language and discourses in order to legitimate his leadership to the population? And what effect has his construction of Reality had on the possibilities and limitations of his government?'. MGP wishes to 'uncover the discursive strategies of which the President makes use in order to legitimate himself, head off the widespread opposition in the country and maintain his hegemony.'
The primary empirical data consists of three annual reports in which President A. Alemán addresses himself to the Nicaraguan people and the parliament to explain his political practice. These speeches are selected in order to follow the changes in Alemán's discourse, and the candidate argues thoroughly for the criteria of the selection. In addition, an impressive collection of background literature is applied, including recent newspaper articles, other articles and monographs.
The theoretical framework for the analysis consists of critical discourse analysis and various theoretical discussions of the concept of democracy and presidentialism concluded by a discussion of the concept of corruption, a total of 22 pages. MGP's choice of theories is both relevant and well supported considering the problem she decides to examine.
In chapter 2 the critical analysis is expounded in the light of Norman Fairclough's work. However, other theory is also incorporated. The exposition focuses on aspects of importance to the formulated problem, and it is clear, well argued for and well structured. MGP presents her own illustration of the relation between social structure and social practice, and expounds Fairclough's three-dimensional model of the relation between text, discursive practice and social practice. Moreover, E. Laclau's and C. Mouffe's notions of moment, nodalpoint, element and floating terms are introduced as a supplement to Fairclough's notions. The chapter is concluded by a short, but accurate presentation of the advantages and disadvantages of critical discourse analysis.
Chapter 3 discusses the concept of development from a cooperation policy perspective in order to show why democracy and the term 'good governance' have become so important in recent years. DANIDA's definitions are used and compared with the definitions of the World Bank, OECD and the EU. Then various theoretical approaches to the democracy debate are discussed, herein those of R. Dahl and L. Whitehead. The phenomenon of 'presidentialism' both generally and particularly in the case of Nicaragua is expounded. Subsequently there is a discussion of the notion of 'corruption'. The candidate distinguishes between corruption in different levels; between whether the offender is a low-paid official or the president of the country.
Chapter 4 is an introduction to the analysis, which begins in chapter 5 with a reconstruction of the social order and practice. The Somoza dictatorship and the background for the Sandista revolution in 1979 are shortly presented. Then the focus is on the democratic period beginning with the first democratic election in 1985, the second election in 1990, when the sandinistas lost, and then Violeta Chamorro's government as a prelude to the Government of Arnoldo Alemán from 1996 to 2001. Poverty, foreign aid and the neoliberal economic programmes are discussed as well as the accusations of corruption against A. Alemán, and finally the conflict between the president and the Comptroller General and the new pact between the two previous enemies, FSLN (the Sandista Party) and the president. The chapter is concluded with interesting models of the political discourse order in Nicaragua and its material and institutional anchor as well as an intermediate conclusion.
In chapter 6 the production and the distribution of the speeches are briefly discussed as a prelude to the textual analysis in chapter 7. This chapter is an extremely thorough analysis of the three speeches which is thoroughly and systematically substantiated in the enclosures 14.1 - 14.14. The analysis is worth reading, interesting and has a lot of good points. The interdiscursivity and intertextuality of the speeches are analysed in chapter 8. The analytical chapters show in all clearness how President Alemán is able to impede the allocation of responsibility by obfuscating his own and others role; how his construction of the past makes the Sandista governments equivalent to dictatorship, whereas the Somoza dictatorship is forgotten or is portayed as democratic; and finally how consensus - and not pluralism, i.e. respect for plurality of opinions - becomes a way of incorporating his adversary in his project. The chapter shows an exceptional maturity and command of the tools of textual analysis and grammar.
In chapter 11, which takes up the discussion of 'democracy' and 'good governance' again - this time in the light of the analyses in the preceding chapters - the notion of 'hegemony' is also discussed but perhaps it should have been better defined in the presentation of the theories. However, the chapter contains a highly interesting discussion of the relationship between DANIDA and the Nicaraguan President, which certainly gives the discussion of good governance new perspectives.
The conclusion is a thorough summary of the discussions and gives an interesting perspective concerning how the analysis of language use can contribute to the understanding of politics and society.
SUMMARIZED ASSESMENT
Mai Green Petersen (MGP) has produced a very well written, structured and interesting thesis. She shows an exceptional awareness of choices of methods and theory, and her analyses are all thorough and well substantiated. She has succeeded in contributing to the debate about whether humanistic methods and the analysis of language are useful in development coorporation research, and more generally can contribute to the understanding of society.
On these grounds our assessment is that the thesis falls under the category excellent.
The candidate can by 4 January make comments, if any, to Anne Marie Ejdesgaard Jeppesen, Department of Romance Languages, Njalsgade 80, 2300 KBH.S, phone number 36328453.
Date:
Hans Krause Hansen
Anne Marie Ejdesgaard Jeppesen
20 December 2001 the candidate made comments to the undersigned by e-mail, whereupon these have been discussed by the external examiner and the examiner. Taking into consideration the comments made by the candidate, a grade 11 has been awarded.
Date:
Hans Krause Hansen
Anne Marie Ejdesgaard Jeppesen