Contesting the Sami Polity: Discursive Representations in the Sami Electoral Campaign in 2005

摘要

This article investigates the internal struggle for power in an electoral campaign for an indigenous popular elected body. Focusing on discourses in the 2005 election to the Sami Parliament in Norway, the article aims to map the space of political competition between the two largest parties represented in the Sami Parliament. By using qualitative data and discourse theory, the article reveals the discursive strategies that were important resources for the Sami politicians in constructing political cleavages, and explores how the national collective found its way into the electoral discourse. The article makes two interrelated claims. First, that certain repertoires from the national identity discourse were important resources for the two parties when they constructed an image of themselves as a trustworthy party, and rendered their political rivals unreliable. Second, that the politicians by engaging in different rhetorical strategies when it came to who they addressed and whose interests they represented, thereby created contesting representations of the Sami polity.