Blurb:

Students in higher education are typically eligible to vote. Voter suppression is an unethical removal of the right to vote and is often part of a wider attack on democratic rights and activities. Respected authorities have emphasized the importance of developing strong democratic norms for the survival of democracy. Can these norms be enhanced by an understanding of the traditional (e.g., Aristotle) and contemporary (e.g., Habermas) ethics of politics and a critical engagement with their application to political activities and discourses? In this chapter, taking a functional linguistics perspective, I focus on a Knowledge Framework approach to the linguistic analysis of political discourses and activities that students in higher education may find helpful to work with in order to respond to current political problems and to engage more intensively with their role as informed voters. This chapter takes a political linguistics approach, by contrast with other chapters in this volume that aim at an educational linguistics approach. Important ethical themes that will be examined include concern for the common good, and for “practical reasoning” (Aristotle) and respect for evidence-based reasoning, and for sincerity (Habermas).