Politics and Security. Notes from the Political Campaigns run by Propuesta Republicana Party at Buenos Aires in 2007 and 2011

LIO, VANESA; CALZADO, MERCEDES; FERNÁNDEZ, MARIANA; CRESPO, TOMÁS

Ricerca in Vetrina. Originalità e impatto della ricerca scientifica di dottorandi e dottori di ricerca

FrancoAngeli

Lugar: Milán; Año: 2018; p. 477 - 486

During the last years, the battle against crime has become central to Latin America policy agendas and political campaigns, as urban safety and crime were considered the main social concern by citizens since 2008. Through the use of political marketing and the development of discourse strategies, central and local governments strongly contributed to the social production of meanings about insecurity, urban risks and fear of crime. In this process, a new voter profile was defined: the citizen described as a victim. In this context, this paper studies the modes of interpellation to citizenship, the enunciation features regarding safety and the role that is assumed by the State during election times. Using Buenos Aires City as a case study, a set of communication pieces from the governing party 2007 and 2011 campaigns were analyzed. What kind of subjectivity is promoted? How is the security described? Which differences and regularities can be recognized between 2007 and 2011 campaigns? Which characteristics allow describing the citizen as a victim? The former questions guide us to the main aim of the research: to identify some political communication variables in the context of the security societies.