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Strategy Versus Understanding

How Orientations Toward Political Conversation Influence Political Engagement

University of Wisconsin-Madison

This study combines empirical political communication research models with theoretical accounts provided by the theory of communicative action to expand the understanding of how communication matters for democratic political functioning, particularly under conditions of social instability. Building on the Habermasian distinction between strategic orientations versus understanding orientations in conversation, the author explores the role of conversation orientations as antecedents to political engagement. Examination of conversation orientations in Colombia, a society characterized by social conflict, provides evidence of the democratic benefits of orientations toward reaching understanding and the deleterious effects of strategic orientations for political involvement, associational membership, and ultimately participation, as well as the importance of including conversation orientations as explanatory factors in models that seek to explain political involvement. These findings speak to the potential for communicative rationality to transcend the use of force and bring about action coordination based on understanding in communities experiencing civil strife.

Key Words: political conversation • civic participation • communicative action

This version was published on August 1, 2008

Communication Research, Vol. 35, No. 4, 452-480 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650208315977


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