Emotional authority in presenting the later Covid-19 strategy : the speeches and statements of Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon

Higgins, Michael and Smith, Angela and McKay, Fiona; Leon-Sollis, Fernando and O'Donnell, Hugh, eds. (2024) Emotional authority in presenting the later Covid-19 strategy : the speeches and statements of Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon. In: The Nation in the Time of Pandemic. Palgrave, [S.I.]. ISBN 9783031566615 (In Press)

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Abstract

Recent research on the performance of political leaders during the early stages of Covid-19 measures suggests that women leaders place more emphasis on emotional engagement and address their publics at the individual level. This chapter analyses the discursive management of emotion and authority in the post-lockdown stages of the pandemic, focusing on then-Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. A critical discourse analysis approach reveals elements of conversationalisation and political discourse. These varied across parliamentary speeches and public statements, but were consistently managed in a manner that balanced emotionality with a conventional language of authority. It finds that while Sturgeon displayed the emotional engagement associated with other women leaders, this was alongside a sustained commitment to a lexicon of governmental power and control.

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