Концептуалне основе истраживања релација дискурса, моћи, политике и демократије
Conceptual Basis of Research on Discourse Relation, Power, Politics and Democracy

Summary/Abstract: Generally understood as the linguistic/semantic structures represented in the written and spoken medium, in accordance to the determined rules and communication intention, i.e. the use of it in certain conversational and sociocultural/political context, the discourses represent the sociolinguistic phenomena, which analysis is as of no doubt of scientific importance; they are, neverthless, not only the important factors in the process of social communication, but also closely linked to the means by which a society is governed and how it is managed. This points out the importance of research of the role of governing/ public discourse in the construction of social life, identity and social performance, as well as of analysis of its political dimensions. Relevant theoretical basis of such research, which received its numerous empirical achievements and angles, is questioning the relation of the discourse, power and politics. One of the inevitable departure of such conceptual analysis is certainly a research, that was scientifically very productive in the last two decades, of the concept of discourse, or providing some kind of encoding of the meaning of it, pointing out its different dimensions and different contexts of its use. In that purpose, at the beginning of this study, we provide a review of basic meanings of the discourse, gave them some feedback and determined the baseline conceptualization of this term. Furthermore, we tried to provide a synthesized view on the expansion and enrichment of this concept, which is the technical (linguistic) term, through the interdisciplinary development and specifications carved into a multifunctional tool for the social analysis. The political potential of a language and its (mis)use is the eternal Orwellian theme that has entered into a combination of interdisciplinary interpretation of the various spheres and levels of expression. The discourse is seen as a kind of a linguistic structure, which social use represents a specific exertion of power. By linking the notion of discourse with the concept of power in his research, Michel Foucault gave the main impetus to these studies, therefore this article gives a special attention to his fundaments of research. As a unique conclusive review, in contrast to Habermas' concept of communicative power as the power of discourse / debate, we set up a Foucaul¬ tian discourse of power and by comparing their opposing positions we indicate the two final points in the conceptualization of this term.

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