The case of wage adjustment in the chilean public sector (2010). An approach from the discourse analysis

Abstract

In 2010, for the first time in Chilean post-authoritarian democracy, a centre-right government assumes power, and one of the key moments to comprehend its political logics and the interaction with the opposition was the mediatic visibility of salary increase negotiations for public workers. Based on an analytical framework with categories coming from conflict theory and, specifically, from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), paired with contributions from the speech act theory and the pragmatism of discourse, the article presents the case abovesaid, evaluating discourses and argumentative strategies. Being it an institutionalized political conflict where political actors (unions, government and parliamentary) have resorted to practices and public discourses that shape a socio-political scenario, it is interesting to examine it. For this purpose, the press that informed about this process during November and December 2010 was interpreted, analyzing dominant discourses and ideological formation in the triad State-Society-Market.