The Abuse of Attacks: A Functional Analysis of the 2008 Spanish Presidential Debates.

This study applied the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to analyze the two debates featuring the two main political leaders in the 2008 Spanish general elections. Overall, candidates focused more on attacks than on acclaims or positive statements (this was due to the challenger's emphasis of attacks; the incumbent used more acclaims than attacks). Few defenses were used. Policy was a more common topic than the candidates or parties. The Incumbent acclaimed more, and attacked less, than the challenger both generally and in particular on past deeds. General goals ideals were used more to acclaim than to attack. These results are similar to those obtained in the content analysis of electoral debates, following the Functional Theory in the United States of America, Ukraine, South Korea and Israel, so it appears that there are some common characteristics in political debates that transcend borders. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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