The Post-Politics of the 2014 New Zealand General Election
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2017 The Post-Politics of the 2014 New Zealand General Election A SYMPTOMATIC DISCOURSE ANALYSIS JOERG D. BENDT A Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Art in Politics University of Otago December 2017 The Post-Politics of the 2014 New Zealand General Election Joerg D. Bendt Abstract In this thesis, I submit the 2014 election campaign in Aotearoa to a logics-based discourse analysis in a post-positivist manner tracing the post-political elements of contemporary politics in Aotearoa New Zealand. For this analysis, I draw on the theoretical vernaculars of discourse theory, and capitalist realism, in addition to the usual concerns given to neoliberalisation in the study of New Zealand politics. Consequently, I argue for post-politics as a useful theoretical approach to the contemporary parliamentary politics in Aotearoa. Finally, I widen the scope of the discussion by utilising relatively recent work on bio- financialisation and on hauntology which suggest a possible opening for novel forms of politics. 2 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements First and foremost I thank my supervisor Chris for his advice, support and patience throughout the process of writing this thesis. Further, I owe gratitude to the staff at the Hocken Library at the University of Otago, who more than once pointed me in productive directions during the research-phase of my thesis. Thanks also to my partner Lana for her never-ending support, countless cups of tea made for me, and some proof-reading. I couldn’t have done this without all those friends, bandmates, and family, who’ve kept me sane and always offered avenues of help and escape. Finally, I want to thank my mother Carola who, from an early ages, taught me the importance and value of critical enquiry. All mistakes and shortcomings that remain are my own. 3 The Post-Politics of the 2014 New Zealand General Election Joerg D. Bendt Table of Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. 4 TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ 6 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL VERNACULARS ........................................................................... 10 Capitalist Realism .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Post-politics and the political ........................................................................................................................ 13 Discourse theory............................................................................................................................................ 17 Discourse analysis.......................................................................................................................................... 21 Phelan’s five logics of neoliberalization ......................................................................................................... 24 Bio-financialisation and embodied value production ..................................................................................... 31 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 32 CHAPTER 2: THE 2014 GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN AOTEAROA ................................. 34 Campaign policies .......................................................................................................................................... 36 Long term trends ........................................................................................................................................... 43 The election campaign ................................................................................................................................... 44 The long campaign .................................................................................................................................... 45 Dirty Politics .............................................................................................................................................. 49 The Short Campaign .................................................................................................................................. 51 The media in the election campaign .............................................................................................................. 58 Aotearoa’s mediascape ............................................................................................................................. 58 The media coverage of the 2014 election campaign .................................................................................. 61 The media and Dirty Politics ...................................................................................................................... 63 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER 3: ARTICULATING THE LOGIC OF NEOLIBERALISATION TO THE 2014 GENERAL ELECTION ............................................................................................................................ 68 Market determination ................................................................................................................................... 68 4 Table of Contents Individualisation ............................................................................................................................................ 78 Competitive ritual.......................................................................................................................................... 83 Self-interest ................................................................................................................................................... 88 Commodification, assetisation, and the culture of valuation ......................................................................... 93 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 102 CHAPTER 4: POST-POLITICAL REMAINDER ......................................................................... 103 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 112 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 117 Campaign materials ..................................................................................................................................... 117 All other sources .......................................................................................................................................... 118 5 The Post-Politics of the 2014 New Zealand General Election Joerg D. Bendt Table of figures Table 1: 2014 televised leaders debates in chronological order .......................................... 54 6 Introduction Introduction Since the 1990s there has been increasing interest in the depoliticisation of the liberal market democracies of the West, what some scholars have called the turn to ‘post-politics’ (for instance cf. Mouffe, 2005; Rancière, 2004; Wilson & Swyngedouw, 2014; Žižek, 1999). While the accounts of post-politics vary, especially in the conceptualisation of the mechanism(s) of depoliticisation at the heart of post-politics as well as in their conception of the political, they nevertheless share a common thread – the concern with the evacuation of the properly political from politics. Based on the Heideggerian distinction between the ontic and the ontological,1 these scholars of ‘post-politics’ direct attention to the tension between politics, that is the institutional practices which organise society and sociality, and the ontological category of the political (Mouffe, 2005; Rancière, 2004; Wilson & Swyngedouw, 2014; Žižek, 1999). Furthermore, a relation between post-politics and neoliberalisation is commonly posited in such a way that post-politics is a consequence of both neoliberalisation and post- modern identity politics (Mouffe, 2005; Žižek, 1999). In this thesis, I seek to relate post-politics to the shape of contemporary politics in Aotearoa. Drawing specifically, but not exclusively, on the 2014 election campaign and commentaries on this election from various sources (the media, the academy, and politicians’ self- interpretations), I argue that the concept of post-politics helps explain the campaign events as well as the interpretations of such events in the commentaries surveyed. I look at the 2014 election campaign because it makes political activities more salient. Furthermore, the 2014 election was the most recent general election in New Zealand at the time I started working 1 Roughly, “[…] the former is concerned with facts about entities