The construction of free trade as discourse by the World Trade Organization: A critical discourse analysis.

摘要

The term free trade can be characterized as the ability of individuals to sell products in an open market, unfettered by quotas and trade barriers that many countries construct to protect domestic industries, and the livelihood of large sections of their populations. A whole discourse has developed around the term free trade, however, such that it is infused with positiveness, urgency, and an essential quality as a foil for a globalized world economy. This research sought to illustrate that as with all discourses, free trade is an ideological construction which operates as a means to certain ends, that is, the continued dominance of the world by some, while the ranks of the exploited and alienated continue to swell.; The critical discourse analytic (CDA) perspective, which is a combined theoretical and methodological approach, was used as the instrument to help to describe and explain how language as social practice, power, and knowledge impact each other in discourse production, consumption and legitimation. The sample selected consisted of twenty articles taken from the World Trade Organization (WTO) on-line news archives, which relate to “development”, since the WTO characterizes free trade as a precursor to, and for, economic development.; The research answers two main questions dealing with how discourse structures function to legitimate dominance, and assessing how the dominant discourse functions with regards to other discourses. The analysis was able to interrogate a number of ideas that the WTO stated explicitly and implicitly about free trade, by examining the stylistic, syntactic, lexical, and rhetorical devices used to present the ideas regarding the efficacy of free trade. The study shows that whereas the WTO professes a commitment to participation, rules, and consensual decision-making, it leaves unanswered questions regarding adequate access and appropriate representations for individuals who have been traditionally dominated. Furthermore, the free trade mantle is presented by the WTO as the only way by which economic prosperity can be achieved. The WTO makes such claims without acknowledging that the elite countries which all espouse the gospel of free trade, did not become economically prosperous by practicing free trade themselves.; Ultimately, the discourse of free trade is constructed as to appear natural and inevitable. The taken-for-granted assumptions regarding the discourse are presented as truths, even when reality belies the “naturalness” of free trade. Through the CDA methodology, free trade is seen as ideologically driven, having an ethnocentric bias, and promoting a valued stance. The result is that developing and least developed countries (LDCs) are being represented as followers of particular paths that have already been pre-defined and pre-determined. Such a promotion serves to reinforce dominance, since elites cannot continue to be dominant, unless the dominated continue to experience oppression.; In addition, the analysis also addresses how concepts and processes are contextualized and recontextualized, at the macro and micro levels of discourse. This work proceeds from the idea that for the dominated to speak to power and adequately address the constraints of disempowerment, they must create for themselves paradigms of thinking that have liberation potential. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)